It's a metric of progress(speed). I mean, that's how you get good standards of living. You can also look up its GDP per capita, which isn't high but is definitely respectable. In that case though you can look up China's HDI. There's just no metric by which China is failing the majority of its citizens (emphasis on majority; of course Uighurs for example will feel differently). It also doesn't punish an export economy without domestic consumption That doesn't make sense though. Exports bring in money which can be used to import stuff or for domestic consumption. A strong export economy leads to good standards of living.