That cannot possibly make one popular

You got the causation the wrong way around. The point of a signal isn't that the signal itself makes you popular it's that the signal goes along with status.

Few people correct the status of people they consider to be higher status then themselves. The only way that a low status people corrects a high status person is that the person is completely clueless.

Correcting a high status person can mean losing their support.

Al Capone type criminals were not liked, but feared.

There are social interactions where people I driven by mainly by fear but that's not the kind of environment in which you want to be.