It doesn't???... And yet in an non-exacerbated condition (your words), that person, or persons, very likely would have lived! If a person had Covid when they die, report that as a fact. Not to consider that person's Covid status is a seemingly deliberate ploy to mask infection levels.
People don't generally die of 'old age', if they had symptomatic Covid, I would certainly believe it correct to assign it to Covid.