I personally dont mind or fear being eliminated from raising the bar on performance reviews.
Problem is, in practice, it requires a manager more skilled and unbiased than most managers I have seen around. Often those strict performance reviews and stack ranking people will lead to office politics. A tough environment. If it goes that direction, maybe people will hop from different companies every year.
You need performance metrics to set apart the best from the great from the good from the not so good from the bad. You don't have to go overboard but a good manager can easily tell apart the good from the bad.
Companies are continuing to tighten belts in the bad economy so expect the ranking exercises to get worse until things really improve. The age of rest and vest is over.
@OP "I personally"? Kinda redundant, no?
When you cultivate competition instead of collaboration, it is the beginning of the fall. Next things you will see are cutting corners, hoarding information, insecurity and nepotism fogging the entire organization.