and to be clear, i'm not saying that's what i think you are. I'm just conjuring examples to show pen that you could feasibly have role-related reasons to not want pen lynched today despite not being a backup.
Lynching the person i think is most likely to be scum isn't just optimal in that its the move most likely to hit scum, its also optimal in that it will tend to yield the most information. If pendio is scum, then pushing a lynch on him and seeing how the lynch is resisted will be invaluable information, and even if he isn't, seeing how others react to the push is still important. Time is limited in mafia, and i currently believe that lynching pendio today will tend to yield the furthest advancement in my gamestate going into tomorrow.
I am taking your claim into account and it is a point against lynching pen for me, its just not a strong enough point to dissuade me ultimately, because i feel like there's more loss associated with not lynching pen (both in being less likely to hit scum and in yielding less information) than there is in whatever you're afraid of.