It doesn't indicate intent. It indicates incentives and outcomes.

A system is what a system does, not what a system is claimed to stand for.

The original phrase, "the purpose of a system is what it does", was coined as a contrast to people saying "the purpose of this system is X" even though it consistently fails to achieve X. It does not make to look at an arbitrary problem and declare that the system is that problem or exists to produce the problem.