“The situation seems pretty symmetric, though: if a politician builds roads just to get votes, and an NGO steps in and does something valuable with that, the politician’s counterfactual impact is still the same as the NGO’s”—true, but the NGO’s counterfactual impact is reduced when I feel it’s fairer for the NGO to be able to claim the full amount (though of course you’d never know the government’s true motivations in real life)
“The situation seems pretty symmetric, though: if a politician builds roads just to get votes, and an NGO steps in and does something valuable with that, the politician’s counterfactual impact is still the same as the NGO’s”—true, but the NGO’s counterfactual impact is reduced when I feel it’s fairer for the NGO to be able to claim the full amount (though of course you’d never know the government’s true motivations in real life)