The satisfaction and feeling of superiority that comes from knowing that you did the right thing despite incentives to the contrary, in fact, is a very potent incentive in itself. You can totally get addicted to it.
This makes the theory of incentives unfalsifiable, which tracks with how people talk about it.
It's not satire. They just really wanted to tell us all how very, very special they are, not one of the little people...sorry...statistical masses. Someone never got over reading Atlas Shrugged.