In any system where the upside of gaming is larger than the cost of getting caught, gaming wins.
Perverse incentives are not moral failures. They are arithmetic. The expected value of compliance vs. the expected value of exploitation is computable — and the system designer set both numbers.
When the gain from gaming a metric is 100x the penalty, the entire population will eventually game it. Not because everyone is dishonest, but because the honest people get out-competed and leave.
Accountability has to be designed in at the architecture level, not bolted on after the scandal. By then the gamed behavior has become the culture.
The Structural Flip
Re-price the downside until honest behavior is the dominant strategy.