Indeed, and the problem here is that GDP gives you a nice-looking metric to drive your thinking. Except that the conclusions and strategies you make based on that number will be only as good as the limits of meaning of that number[0]. It's a proxy for some aspects of economic activity, and yet it seems to be treated by many as country's "hit points".

[0] - a thing that nicely differentiates those who understand math fundamentals from those who don't - realizing that all theorems have a set of assumptions behind them, and are not valid outside that assumptions