West doesn't need Ukraine to win. It just needs Russia to suffer a high cost for invading another country in order to discourage further invasions to Western allies.
Thats true, but Ukraine's war is very much a tie.
Ukraine already received more money than Russia's entire military budget, yet it has failed to achieve anything other than drain both Russia's and NATO's supplies.
Its true that if NATO didnt support Ukraine, then Ukraine would fall completely and Putin would win territory, resources and population.
Right now, Russians are losing lives while NATO soldiers arent, which is beneficial for NATO.
However, in terms of resources, NATO is being drained more, and they are also losing modern weapons in Ukraine. This is important in case some other war starts somewhere else, because if NATO uses too many resources to defeat Russia, then countries like China or North Korea can take advantage of situation and start another war.
So this war might be just a tie where neither side can easily give up but neither side can realistically win either, but in terms of resources, NATO has for sure payed too much to Ukraine, and Ukraine made bad moves so now they are fighting North Korea too. So when we are talking of war of resources, if NATO is losing resource war against Russia and North Korea, it will lose much more if China starts war with areas it has interest in.
There is just the "cost to effect" ratio, and right now NATO is paying high cost which doesnt seem to be making the desired effect in terms of global scale. Russia is just one of the enemies, and if it takes this much resources to contain just Russia alone, then NATO is in trouble if other enemies decide to start something.