There may be a conversation to be had about the indirect consequences, but I haven't heard an argument for the cost of sitting Lauri. What's certain is there is a non zero benefit for the L, no benefit for the W. Personally, I find that the indirect consequences are heavily in favor of tanking especially if you believe in playing time as a developmental resource. For me, the right amount of remaining games for Lauri to play might not be zero, but it's not far from it.
The value is pretty simple, you get more expected utility from the draft. How much that is, like I said it's subjective. Well, the actually odds are not, but the importance of those differences is. I find it hard to argue that having the difference between 5th and 7th best odds is not more meaningful than winning the 26th most games instead of 24th most wins.
It's kind of like tossing up a heave at the end of a quarter. Very little value in that shot and even if it goes in it does not necessarily mean it will change the outcome of the game. But you really should toss up the heave instead of letting the clock expire.
