When I saw the fluff commits I was immediately reminded of a conclusion from "Punished By Rewards" - once a reward is applied, people will start doing the minim

When I saw the fluff commits I was immediately reminded of a conclusion from "Punished By Rewards" - once a reward is applied, people will start doing the minimum required to obtain the reward, as their motivation has shifted from intrinsic ("I want to improve the project") to extrinsic ("I want a reward, so what do I have to do to get it").