I see it as analogous to people are frequently rewarded for putting out the fire instead of preventing the fire.

I've been noticing this as a solo dev. I need to put lots of work into infra and security, and all I get for it is... the thing not blowing up (hopefully!).

The work is invisible, and impossible to "show off", so it's a bit unrewarding and demoralizing. But hey, someone needs to do it!