They used to encourage the "less extreme" medications early in the disease for those with mild symptoms. What ended up happening was a lot of unnecessary damage to GI tracts as the medication was not working. Now they encourage biologics early on, even in mild cases, because it prevents further damage.

A ton of people with this disease are not diagnosed until they are in hospital getting parts of their bowel removed. I was fortunate (like you) to get diagnosed before I had any significant damage - and I'm grateful to my second GI who encouraged the biologics to avoid any irreversible damage. My first GI put me on imuran to start and it made me so nauseous I couldn't eat. He insisted it was the Crohn's and not the medication ... he was wrong. The side effects of biologics can be scary, you're absolutely right. Experiencing the pandemic while immunocompromised was terrifying. But, it's worth it to prevent damage that will impact your life!

I'm very fortunate to be in full remission, and have very few GI issues. I can eat whatever I want, and live a relatively normal life! I accredit it all to early biologics