The only people who get punished by the system are those who play fair.
The only people, out of the people who act optimally, who get punished by the system are those who play fair.
Many people don't act optimally. The type of person who doesn't want a job is likely to be lazy in a general manner, which will also lead him to not go to interviews at all rather than go to them drunk. Going to an interview drunk in order to keep the money coming in is psychologically difficult to such people for the same reason that actually getting a job is--they act based on a very short time horizon and really don't want to be doing something that is immediately distasteful for a benefit slightly later.
You have oversimplified to uselessness.
A common counter-example is people who do not want this job, for example because it pays less than their current lifestyle costs to support. It isn't lazy, it is making the smart economic decision.
You are also assuming that the trouble of traveling to and from an interview is where the stress and effort lies. I would only credit that as the case if they had a high-demand skill set and were traveling across the country for the in-person interview, which is highly unlikely to apply to someone drawing unemployment benefits. The stress and effort stems from preparation before and performance during an interview, neither of which apply if the goal is to fail at it.
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
To any future monthly posters of SQ threads, please remember to add the "stupid_questions" tag.