It only benefits society at large and even then only in so far as it conveys a fitness advantage.

Once again, what does it mean for something to benefit society, apart from any benefit to individuals in that society?

If something doesn't benefit any of the people I care about directly, at all, then how can it benefit society, which is made up of those people?

It only benefits society at large and even then only in so far as it conveys a fitness advantage. Same as sexual reproduction does. The obvious difference being that sexual mechanisms are visible as motivations on your conscious level but aging mechanisms stop at the biological level. But denying it's operation will not work same as an AI couldn't deny the operation of it hardware (at least not without conferring comparable disadvantages),

Are you familiar with the concept of the selfish gene?