IMO the low rate of snakebite deaths (mortality) blinds people to the impact of survived snakebite injury (morbidity). You don't have to die from a snakebite for it to significantly mess up your life. So a therapy that minimizes tissue damage can have an enormously positive impact, even though the annual US death rate from snakebite is low.

Search "rattlesnake bite" on Google Images. The vast majority of those people survived, but they will carry a heavy economic/functional burden from the injury.

To me it's similar to the oft-quoted "you can live for 3 weeks without food" survival advice. Yes, most people can but the survivor will be so weak long before the 21 day mark that it can affect their ability to self-rescue.