Fair point, but there's a logical relationship between 'testing someone' and 'following a set of instructions that don't achieve that effect'.

Your point is fair, but what is really nuanced is that the people who 'stopped' were the best ones at following the rules.

This seems interesting to me - they were conscientious about 'what was happening' - not just blithly following orders.

The 'rule followers' maybe were conscientiously applying the 'spirit of the test' and quit when they realized it was not reasonable.

The others were 'pressing buttons'.

Even then, it's subject to interpretation. There's a perfectly rational reason why people might subject to 'following the rules' if that's what they've been asked to do and have a sense of 'dutiful civic conduct' and 'trust in institutions'.