To be fair, hitting a deer isn’t exactly safe either. It’s sad if you hit a cat or a squirrel, but they don’t have an ugly tendency to come up over the hood with mass and sharp hooves to come through your windshield either.
I’d never intentionally hit any animal, but given the choice of a deer or a guardrail, the guardrail chewing up my passenger side might well be safer.
I spent 15 years working in an ICU, and a few years before that on an orthopedics floor; I've seen plenty of human damage from 'swerving to miss' a deer, but none that I remember from hitting one--except the guy on the motorcycle.
Certainly do NOT cross a double line on a blind curve, and chance a long drop at best, and a head on at worst.
Scraping a guard rail on the right might be a different matter.
OTOH, hitting the Dumby is a LOT cheaper: first, it comes under comprehensive coverage, so probably has a lower deductible than for a collision.
Second, it is not a chargeable accident, unlike NOT hitting Dumby and damaging public property (guard rail) which the state charges plenty to replace, or killing another driver.
Third, as soon as you SWERVE (Both the woman I mentioned's word, as well as the word so many others used) you have effectively surrendered control of you vehicle; that is not the same as a controlled attempt to avoid.
If the cop isn't sympathetic, it can also get you a citation for failure to maintain control or some such, and points on your license, and higher rates or even canceled insurance.