Nobody throws a party for integrity until the scandal hits everyone who skipped it.

Doing things properly produces no visible event, because the reward is an absence: nothing blew up, nobody was harmed, there is no story to tell. Recognition only arrives in reverse, at the moment things go wrong for everyone who took the other route. Until then it looks like unnecessary caution. Most of the value here is invisible by design.

Do not wait for the choice to be validated, because mostly it will not be. Keep the standard for what it prevents rather than for what it earns. The quiet years are the payoff.