The title/article seems to be a bit of a strawman, AFAICT countries (or their governments / citizens) do not consider the GDP as the one and only measure of national success. Politics are driven by tons of different interest groups (in the broadest sense, ranging from corporate interests, environmental activists, minority representatives, medical or teaching professionals, farmers, retirees living on state pensions, etc, etc.), not by whether some policy might give a boost to GDP. I could argue that it would probably be better if they actually did, but that's for another thread.

In truth, pretty much nobody really knows for sure what policies actually will increase GDP, or what causes the short term fluctuations (business cycle / recession) or variation in long term divergense between different countries in the first place. The more honest academic economists will freely admit this. (I was explicitly thaught so in my graduate macro-economics courses). So I think it's a strawman to think that countries/governments are engating in some kind of myopic GDP maximization plan.

I think the appropriate analogy is household or personal income. (GDP is just all incomes in a country summed up and corrected for inflation.) It's probably not the most important thing in the world, and probably not the most important determinant of personal happyness or life satisfaction. But a severe lack of it (especially compared to the people around you) or an unexpected large drop will probably be considered problematic by most people.