I doubt very much they don’t know the potential philosophy.

Personally though, at some point theoretical vs practical takes precedence yeah. Or are we going to start going around ‘fixing’ everyone else’s political systems? Because historically, that hasn’t exactly helped has it?

That’s not the fundamentals of political philosophy. It’s a western take on political philosophy, there’s many others both from the west and elsewhere.

Social contract theory is not the basis of political philosophy, it is one response to the problem of political authority. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_authority

If you look at the criticisms section of your linked page, you'll also see why social contract theory is more popular in high-school than it is with actual philosophers (most of whom think it's wrong).