Yes, its basically the same principle. Though I think we can never truely understand all aspects of society, just like you probably can't simultaneously understand everything that happens within a modern computer. Even if you have the IQ you don't have the time and capacity.

So in practice, I think we are left to make incremental attempts at improvements, while trying to make changes both small and reversible.

In computer science terms, this is gradient decent. It may not allow us to reach all global minima, but it is much more likely to lead to a good place than large semi-random changes.