Leveraging the prestigious papers to win grant proposals is where they need to get them. Citations aren't what gets you a job or tenure at a R1 research school, it's the grants that the high-impact papers help you win.

You don't have to convict people for full-on fraud. If you are caught using an obvious mistake in your favor or using a weak statistical approach, the punishment can be you are not allowed to apply for grants with a supervisor/co-PI/etc who's role is to prevent you from following that "dumb" process in the future.