Well, you can increase your paycheque by getting promoted... If the 'heroes' are the ones that get promoted, then they are getting more then the unsung heroes.

I suppose that's not a terrible metric in theory, but by that token the people who make mistakes are, in the general case, still taking more credit since they are also are paid to fix the problems.

But one example of the dysfunctional situation present in that case. Many other examples of individualistic politics exist.

A "paycheck" is too individual to successfully result in quality in an organization larger than a couple dozen.

The correct method is to understand the system of work, and implement good process to continually improve it. Quality needs to be built in from the beginning.