I don't know if it's a failure of storytelling that people don't act sanely. There are a lot of influences that pull on people. Stories aren't just cautionary tales. They're news, gossip, a funny thing that happened, projections, fantasies, and who knows what else. We also have different interpretations of the same story. A cautionary tale to one person might mean something else entirely to someone else.
I don't know if it's a failure of storytelling that people don't act sanely. There are a lot of influences that pull on people. Stories aren't just cautionary tales. They're news, gossip, a funny thing that happened, projections, fantasies, and who knows what else. We also have different interpretations of the same story. A cautionary tale to one person might mean something else entirely to someone else.