As a general observation, people chasing numbers to the exclusion of all else is what produces many of the bad effects in society. Whether it's the stock market, or performance targets in government departments or social media statistics intended to maximize engagement. Chasing numbers is also what many "bullshit jobs" are about.

This is related to what I called in the past "the fallacy of metrics". The engineering approach works well when designing an engine, but when the same methods are applied to social relations there can be a lot of bad consequences.