Rationality doesn’t tell you what to care about. It can tell you how to be the best paperclip-maximiser equally well. “Winning” depends on what you care about; and most of us do care about the fate of society, not just maximising our own wealth and status. So being a hedonist wouldn’t necessarily be “winning”.
What is a problem is forgetting that you care about long-term things, or far away people. So we certainly do need to be on guard against short-termism, and if “winning” connotes focussing on short-term benefit to you, then perhaps that’s an argument to stop using the word. But it’s not a deep problem.
Rationality doesn’t tell you what to care about. It can tell you how to be the best paperclip-maximiser equally well. “Winning” depends on what you care about; and most of us do care about the fate of society, not just maximising our own wealth and status. So being a hedonist wouldn’t necessarily be “winning”.
What is a problem is forgetting that you care about long-term things, or far away people. So we certainly do need to be on guard against short-termism, and if “winning” connotes focussing on short-term benefit to you, then perhaps that’s an argument to stop using the word. But it’s not a deep problem.