This very much echoes Dr. Edward Deming's thoughts on incentives and measurements. Deming emphasized unlocking peoples intrinsic desire to do a good job rather than fixating on extrinsic motivators such as bonuses and salaries. He also encouraged an environment of education and self improvement, and removing barriers to pride of workmanship.

The challenge today would appear to be our need or desire to chase higher salaries. It's not immediately clear to me what brought about this transformation in our prevalent motivation because I'm quite confident it's ubiquity is a recent phenomenon. Maybe it's consumerism and social competitiveness (envy) or maybe it's rampant inflation and subconscious existential dread on our ability to provide for ourselves and our families, or probably something else.