Those who've never existed are better off than those who've died...which makes zero sense if the dead go straight to heaven and are now enjoying an eternity of joy and bliss, right or wrong?
Nothing about the redeemed dead in the OT applies to the redeemed post the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus.
Those born from above would never taste death, walk through the valley of the shadow of death, nor exist as a soul without a body.
There are not any souls who never existed.
You are so stuck in the past, Jesuit Preterist would be proud of you.
There is no Scripture that claims a soul ceases to exist. That would be like saying when Jesus died on the Cross, God ceased to exist, because the physical body of Jesus was dead, and the spirit left the body, so God as the eternal image of the soul, ceased to exist for 3 days and 3 nights, without a body and the Spirit. Then somehow the spirit joined the body, and God popped back into existence.
The term immortal means life or the opposite of death. You wrongly emphasize some physical part of existence is included in that term. There is no such thing as an immortal body. Not found any where in Scripture. You are as as wrong as most human theology.
One is either alive or dead. You have a dead body. That is why it is called mortal. You are separated from your spirit, and spiritually dead, with only the Holy Spirit as a replacement. Adam physically and spiritually died, and all that was left was a soul in a dead body.
To describe what happened any other way is misinterpreting Scripture, and contradicting even the OT verses you have quoted. The dead do not know anything in sheol, not because they do not exist, but because there is no connection with life on the earth. God has forbidden such a connection, and any connection is fraught with human imagination.
Of course spirits can move freely even in sheol, but they are deceived and deceivers of false information. Most people are just as clueless here on earth and know nothing as well.
People who throw around that word "eternity" do not know anything either. Everlasting and eternal are one concept. Eternity is a totally different concept. Eternity has no beginning and no end, and only God can exist in eternity. The NHNE is not eternity. They have a defined beginning. They include time and a physical reference. They may never end, but you don't know that, as much as you claim those, who allegedly don't exist, know nothing. Compared to God, you know nothing, especially about eternity. No created being can enjoy an eternity of anything, because they had a beginning, and cannot even exist in eternity.
I would point out that Elijah is more likely than not, Enoch who has returned to earth after enjoying a physical experience in Paradise. No one saw him arrive, but Elisha saw him leave. Moses was translated on Mount Sinai, and could have lived a long life and left like Elijah in a chariot of fire, but he disobeyed God, and was banned from even the Promised land of Israel. No one was a witness to his physical death, and the body did not return to dust in the wilderness, because he was translated 40 years prior. Moses wrote that he died, and told them not to look for his body. Satan did not get his body either.
All the rest of the OT waited as souls in a location that Jesus called Abraham's bosom. You can argue over that point, but Luke wrote that is what Jesus literally said. You cannot call that place Paradise, because Paradise was already in heaven with the tree of life since God removed both from the earth, whenever. There is no Scripture that states Paradise was moved at the Cross.
Souls do not cease to exist. And the thief had God's permanent incorruptible physical body immediately upon his soul leaving one physical body for the other. Only 2 people have been translated to not experience death to date. Except perhaps John. But don't you interpret the rapture as being translated so no one experiences death? Or do you think all will physically die, and then cease to exist, and then pop into existence with a different body? Paul did not use the word translated but the word changed. Don't you think they are the same thing?
We all (the entire church) will have been changed. That is looking back at the last 2 millennia. Paul was looking forward to those same millennia. That change happens at physical death, which is not tasting death, per the Cross, but experiencing everlasting life.
You may not be deceived by Satan's words "you surely won't die", but you have not accepted the words of Jesus saying "you won't taste death". If you claim you will be among "the dead" who know nothing, you are denying your second birth from above. You literally already know nothing.
