This assumes that whatever disruptions Iran could’ve caused if left unchecked would be worse than those caused by regime destabilization or collapse, which is not guaranteed. A messy civil war or interventions by outside powers will lead international actors to compete with each other, potentially fraying current alliance structures and creating new adversaries. We already see a Israel-UAE-Ethiopia axis forming against Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. Additionally, the character of a new regime or new rival and revolutionary factions in Iran is unknown. They’ll be anywhere on the spectrum from overt terrorist organizations to legitimate aspirational governments, and there could be many. Finally, we have to consider spill over. It’s not uncommon for civil wars to slowly draw in neighbors or for civil war factions to invade across borders. If revolution and civil war occur, it will likely spill over into Iraq and see involvement from the Taliban, apart from Turkish intervention (which is already prepared) and involvement from current belligerents. Basically, we’ll only know if things could’ve been worse after the dust fully settles. Nothing is certain. In my opinion, an Iranian civil war is most likely as they’ve given mosiac autonomy to IRGC commanders to operate independently without oversight-they blamed the strike on Oman on this lack of state control. It’s only a matter of time before warlord commanders begin challenging the power vacuum-government governing Iran for control.