Looking back at this thought, definitely a case of me not really being on the ball.
As pointed out to me - even in their more innocuous [relative] early state, people would still get super obsessive over achievements. Just because I've largely been fortunate enough to have a brain that switches quickly to "screw this nonsense" and can ignore them easily-ish, doesn't mean everyone else can. The kind of thought I really should default to by now!