The reason for this cultural paradox is because face-saving is associated with dishonesty. That is that the behavior is not aligned with the spoken motive. This is interesting to see, because this sort of dishonesty is common in American culture where the values are primarily kindness and productivity.

I find it interesting from my perspective as long time military guy where in the military subculture honesty is highly valued and kindness is not (it is just rolled into respect or otherwise ignored in favor of other virtues).