I have played Avalon a few times but never with the Percival mechanic. However I don't think that being "shameless" can be the dominant strategy. If you make it so you must be either Percival or Merlin the opponents can always pick you as Merlin and win the majority of the time. So you could only employ the strategy somewhere and probably much less than 50% of the time. Yes it works if no one is thinking but lots of strategies work if no one is thinking.
As to the real life analogies my opinion is this: Being shameless is a political strategy. Sometimes it's real and sometimes it's an act. Genuine shamelessness seems to do better because people who are not thinking too hard like those Avalon players who fall for shameless Merlin still often recognize a fake personality.
As to the real life analogies my opinion is this: Being shameless is a political strategy. Sometimes it's real and sometimes it's an act. Genuine shamelessness seems to do better because people who are not thinking too hard like those Avalon players who fall for shameless Merlin still often recognize a fake personality.