That "blindingly obvious loophole" is basically the standard.

These compensation deals are very often based on earnings per share or value per share. And you can increase it.

The link below is from the Conference Board, which is about as rock-ribbed big business friendly capital establishment types as they come. Even they caution about executive trickery here.

https://www.conference-board.org/blog/postdetail.cfm?post=68...