I believe a data-driven approach has worked here specifically because it's a very very small country with a very homogeneous culture. If we multiply the population by 1000, and if we introduce minorities and other agents that increase the heterogeneity of the population, the data-driven approach would stop working because there simply are too many things to take care of. It's like trying to win a war: as the amount of concurrent battles approaches infinity, so does the complexity of the war, and therefore the chances of winning sharply decrease.

The solution, as you just said, is to govern ourselves in a smaller scale. Apply data-driven solutions (like this one from Iceland) to smaller communities, one by one. Also, make sure those who apply these solutions are knowledgeable about how those smaller communities work.