And to think many would cheer if it were being applied to ends they approve of (enforcing some petty domestic law with fines and bureaucrats instead of taking foreign soil with bombs and soldiers, or whatever).
I'm obviously not arguing that this is a good idea, but I wouldn't be that surprised if this is the future trajectory (sorry for the pun) of "smart weapons".
An appeals process isn't a magic uno reverse card that makes a morally reprehensible fact pattern ok. Capricious and/or vibe and/or "Signature based" (vibes with extra steps IMO) application of government violence is reprehensible regardless of the amount of violence applied.
Trying to anchor the discussion around "whole lives" is just lying MBA accounting but for social issues. At the state level life, limb, quality of life and wealth (monetary or otherwise) are all subject to inter related tradeoffs and are somewhat fungible and convertible.