To me the signaling-spiral inside-baseball hall-of-mirrors as well as the committee-style decision making seem most salient as reasons.
The whole thing reminds me of the exponential increase in published scientific papers but comparatively little to show for it in terms of big name discoveries. Both are immaterial prestige games and can fly off into a spiral.
The whole thing reminds me of the exponential increase in published scientific papers but comparatively little to show for it in terms of big name discoveries. Both are immaterial prestige games and can fly off into a spiral.