Maybe they’re bright enough to see that it’s not taken and wasted, but becomes the foundation of their incredibly successful state. Not everyone in every country is blinkered by the ideology of the greediest, in the hope of joining them.
They likely don't care about other people. You'd have to frame it for them differently.
Perhaps the glory of an immortal title? Maybe the admiration of the populace? Something like that.
I can see an egomaniac going for that.