This is so true.

When I worked at a cell phone store, we had an accessory take rate (ATR) target. The goal was to sell 3-5 accessories for every phone sold. (The accessories had much more profit. Compared to the phones that were sold at a loss with a contract) We would sling cheap screen protectors and clearance items that were only a few bucks to crank that number up without actually getting the customers to spend more money.

They caught on and changed it to Accessory revenue per phone, and suddenly the cheap junk quit moving and we'd only have to get one person per day to buy a Bluetooth speaker to hit target.

Management (mis)using kpi is a classic example.

Doesn't this apply to most religions?

Maybe not, it's a thing within global governance. You whip out the HDI or Gini coefficient and suddenly countries scramble to increase in its rankings