The rules make cheating possible by first making winning meaningful.

Cheating only exists because winning was first made to matter. Establish stakes, and you create the incentive to circumvent the rules that produced them, which means the two things arrive together and cannot be separated. There is no version of a meaningful contest that does not also manufacture the temptation.

So when you design anything with stakes, a bonus, a target, a competition, expect gaming and plan for it rather than being surprised by it. Ask what the cheapest way to hit the number would be, and assume someone will find it. That is not cynicism about people; it is an accurate account of what incentives do.