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Maybe this is because of the visibility.

If your security legislation is often declared partly illegal by the Verfassungsgericht (latest [1]), you leave the impression of reaching too far by default.

If your courts do not declare (too far reaching) laws illegal, you leave the impression to have been right in your demands.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/world/europe/germany-priv...

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Is your argument that strict controls makes corruption appear more prevalent than it is in reality?

Here is a different way to think about it. You are a police officer and interrogate 100 honest people who never lie and 25 people confess their crimes and the rest are innocent. Then you interrogate 100 people who always lie (75 are innocent) and you can only prove 15 of them guilty. From the outside it looks like honest people have a higher chance to be criminals. Doing the right thing can destroy your reputation.

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