Not how stats work pal.  They ARE alive, they have covid and they smoke. Therefore all DEAD previous to covid would NOT be calculated in.
You presume the numbers are total population but the study is LIVING smokers with covid. Their co-morbidities SHOULD have made them MORE prone to death when infected with covid.  

Look smoking is nasty and bad for your health.  But in this case it’s possible that smoking tends to 1)tone down the overreaction and inflammation in the lungs 2) the nicotine may HELP with inflammation 3)the thicker mucus in a smoker MAY help protect the lung tissue 4) the cilia may be conditions to lifting foreign matter out of the lungs with a smoker. 5)drawing in air past a lit coal on the cigarette may actually work as a small furnace melting the waxy and fragile outer shell of the virus destroying it.  Thus getting FEWER active viruses into the patient.