Whilst being Olympic champion is great and absolutely what the individual athletes should be striving for, I think for the countries, the medal count is a better reflection of the 4 years of hard work.
There are multiple people at this Olympic Games who are the best in the world but haven't won gold. Gold medals are only a small window and some require a lot of luck.
Bethany Shriever didn't medal due to a slight error in the final but won every race up until that point. The women's windsurfer was miles ahead won nearly every race all week, then the scores reset and 1 misjudgement got her nowhere near gold. Noah Lyles won the 100m by 0.005, on another day he wouldn't have medalled. All golds require talent and skill but some of them have had a lot of luck as well.
Look at Tom Pidcock, brilliant Olympic champion but a puncture nearly cost him.
UK Sport judge it on medal count for a reason and that's the uncontrollables. Getting medals is less lucky than getting gold.