I would not automatically treat all the things that people do consciously as intrinsically linked with consciousness, unless there's some clear reasoning why consciousness is required to do that particular thing - and not in the sense that it's required because unconscious people can't do stuff because they're incapacitated.

Like, saying that simulating tradeoffs is what consciousness is actually doing seems to me equivalent to saying that smashing my fist on the table is something 'my consciousness' is doing, which is kind of technically true but not really relevant, as IMHO a non-human entity that's clearly without any consciousness could both smash something against the table and also simulate tradeoffs for various options, having a subjective experience isn't required for that.