I'm not sure how to begin answering the moral question of what bad thing is worse. I do know that the answer is uninteresting to me. We just shouldn't be doing either of those things.

I do not believe the Obama administration used more drones because of public backlash against torture. Correlation does not imply causation and all that.

It could easily be explained that because torture doesn't work there's no reason to risk more lives to capture someone alive. It may be that drone technology just advanced and became an option or an easier option. I can think of a lot of possibilities but I have no reason to believe any of them.

Is there a name for this kind of fallacy?