I would say it's worse than running a lottery. It becomes a self-reenforcing thing where you mentally bucket highly ranked individuals as "your good people". Then you give them the prestigious assignments at the exclusion of others, and that act alone gets them the bonus and promo at the next round, at the cost of under-investing in those who you passed over and demoralizing them. It becomes a tool to create and re-enforce bias, or an echo chamber.