Populations were much smaller then, and only a small fraction of the population went on sailing voyages long enough to suffer from scurvy. So your estimate of millions of deaths from scurvy is implausible on the face of it.
Of course I agree with you. I was initially quite surprised to discover how many deaths it caused. It's a world we can't even imagine when good chunks of your crew dying was just a regular part of a job. But of course intuition should never replace facts. Maybe next time a more productive idea would be to ask for a source? I'm certain you're far from the only person who found the fact surprising!
