Deliverance
I think you need to be more specific about 'the leadership' and the responsibility for sharp-pencilling. From my reading of the SI this is about procedural drift and it is quite possible, or even probable, that the 'cure' for the stats shortfall started at junior level, ie with individual pilots, as a means of getting the job done. It may even have started with a previous Red 1 condoning or starting the practice years ago, as he would have had the same problem himself; I don't know this for a fact, and neither do you. But there was no evidence revealed by the SI that showed people further up the chain were aware or approved of what was being done.
Before the usual suspects wave conspiracy theories and VSO protectionism at me, I would suggest that it is perfectly possible for this situation to arise on almost any outfit you can name without the need for collusion from above. From my own recollections of supervising flying (FJ, BFT and ME) I would check that people had logged their CT requirements and particularly that sims were being done. The usual ops room currency-tracking boards helped with this. What I didn't do - because nobody had ever suggested it was necessary - was to cross-check with the records held by the sim. Nor did I conduct audits to check that the sim staff were logging things properly. Instead, I assumed (perhaps naively) that when someone made an entry in the auth sheets or their log book and signed for it, that they were being truthful and had done what was being claimed - it's called integrity and professionalism.
But TH is right: if you can't achieve a particular CT requirement on a regular basis because of a time or resource issue, then you need to flag it to the next level and ask for a change or a waiver. The 'leadership' can then examine the risk and decide whether to accept it or not.