My point is that reported data is generally very unreliable, since there’s all kind of incentives that bias the results.

As for that generating happiness, think of drugs for instance, that you personally want them doesn’t mean they’re good to you.

What makes it evil? That word is thrown around too easily. If there is an incentive, it has to be considered as a possible explanation

It is evil to assume everyone else is evil and the only difference between people is those who have been caught doing evil things and those who are hiding it well. It assumes there are no well-intentioned people or people who wouldn't feel the need to lie.

Why would you assume that I’m assuming everyone is evil?

I’m just assuming that people generally follow incentives and thus averages will reflect them. If you need any evidence for “People follow incentives”, we have full branches of studies built on that premise.

My guess would be that you’re assuming I think people would lie, and you find lying reprehensible (I don’t).

In any case, IMO the biggest problems here are that apples to apples comparisons are very hard to make, and long term effects are essentially unknowable.