Agree. I feel that it is beneficial to present yourself larger than you really are.
King Louis XIV lost a bunch of his land to astronomers able to more accurately measure said land. This is the sort of thing that can happen when you want to turn your country into a world leader in science.
The first rule in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:
1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals