That doesn’t sound like the curators are trying to get credit for IDs. It sounds like they’re trying to be helpful. What we want is for IDs to be made, after all- it isn’t a contest of who gets the most first ones.
I know I certainly don’t care who IDed something first, not least as it doesn’t make them any more likely to be correct.
INat isn’t ‘exploiting’ anything. The existence of charts and statistics on the site isn’t to manipulate people into playing some kind of game, it’s because people enjoy having those things as part of something they’re already doing. You aren’t playing one of those mobile games that wants as much of your time and money as possible, you’re participating in a scientific endeavor.