I'm not forcing them to write the words.

If they want to say "we tried, it did not work, the economy got worse than we expected, yet we think we're still in the best position to run the companies, but we have to make hard decisions now", that's their stuff.

I wonder how it would play out for any other employee using this strategy in performance review.

"I take full responsibility for not fulfilling my OKRs, and therefore I will demand that your fire every one else in the team to afford my promotion and raise."

I’ve yet to see any line employee willing to take a major pay-cut because they screwed something up.

The analogy might be a saleperson violating a minor policy to ensure a sale. They would take a fee for violating the position, but their sale bonus would compensate.