Bottom line, the area under the curve is going to remain the same. The steps we take to reduce transmission are delaying tactics, nothing more and nothing less. Europe didn't exhaust their area under the curve in the first wave, and it's back. There's just no stopping it, the science of the virology is inevitable.
There is value in those delaying tactics though, especially if we can manage to produce an effective vaccine that moves us closer to herd immunity and actually diminishes the area under the curve.
But if no effective vaccine is produced, then the area under the curve remains the same, and the world can't sustain the same level of shut-down as it currently is, forever. Beyond the devastating economic implications, the much longer-term aspects of mental health, productive education, and dozens of other factors, dictate that we'll end up doing more harm than good, with continued shutdowns/distancing.