That's an overly pessimistic view. Both professional and personal growth depend on effectiveness. Even conformity doesn't exclude it. You can conform better by being more effective.
What if instead it were about shifting direction in favor of what is deterministic in response to numeric measures? For example instead of doing what feels comfortable as necessary to lower the perceived cost of hiring/training what if the focus were on building things that execute faster, achieve superior accessibility, or lower the cost to refactor according to automated analysis? Excellence is exclusive to those who wish to achieve it while conformity is the opposite.