[elefanten]

It’s not as “simple” as gp suggests, nor is it “the right thing”. We really don’t know what psychological and qol differences there are between the two… we’ve never been able to ask the cats. There are trade-offs, life expectancy being only one dimension of it. And in both cases (like the play you mention) there are mitigations to the downsides.

Source: I’ve had both indoor and outdoor cats, including cats that transitioned to outdoor after being raised indoor. Lost one outdoor cat tragically in middle of his lifespan. But his equally-outdoor brother lived to 19, and all the outdoor cats hands down seemed happier on average (less lethargic, less neurotic, less obsessive, less overeating).