You're right that there are definitely people who are competent and have accepted the necessity of the surface-level accoutrements. The problem is that their direct knowledge of the worthlessness of those tokens means they will never wear them as sincerely and earnestly as an incompetent person, who believes that the surface-level tokens are competence itself.
A little bit of pushback on the more technical or capable people and they will start dropping the facade, whereas the less capable will just hold it up higher, because it's the only thing they know. They have no conscience accusing them of misrepresentation, no sense of guilt or concern that they may be drifting afield from an acceptable core. They only learn that they need to wear the tokens more convincingly next time.
So yes, you can have people who wear the tokens for expedience and out of a recognition that its important to fulfill the heuristics, but they're no competition for those blissfully unaware that there is anything else involved.
I really don't understand your point. It's not as though wearing clothing "good enough" to get "social brownie points" is difficult in most places. An ironed, well tailored outfit and simple color coordination is usually good enough to signal to people that you're credible. Most folks will not need to get into the finer points of fashion like the very latest trends and brand names. So I don't see where sincerity plays in when the bar to just reach the level of "looks like they have their things together" is pretty low.
In my experience (I sort of enjoy fashion) most people cannot tell the minute differences between "tailored outfit & basic color coordination" and "total fashionista who keeps up with everything." I can walk around with a fake Coach bag, get compliments all day, most people just do not know.
There's exceptions of course, certain offices/fields of work. But it's not common.
A little bit of pushback on the more technical or capable people and they will start dropping the facade, whereas the less capable will just hold it up higher, because it's the only thing they know. They have no conscience accusing them of misrepresentation, no sense of guilt or concern that they may be drifting afield from an acceptable core. They only learn that they need to wear the tokens more convincingly next time.
So yes, you can have people who wear the tokens for expedience and out of a recognition that its important to fulfill the heuristics, but they're no competition for those blissfully unaware that there is anything else involved.