You misunderstand, fortification isn't a choice. It's not an option.
Had you asked me if widespread cheating was possible before 2020, I'd have said "yes, but it would be suicide. The sheer cost of it all would be astronomical". But they did it, they paid that price.... and burnt all of their capital to do it. They have done nothing that has gained them any since, in fact they managed to go into the red.
Fortification -costs-, it costs a -lot-. They simply -do not have- the capital to afford it. It's not an option. It's not something they even have the ability to choose.
This, by the way, is why one of the three possibilities I laid out is "An actual nazi gets in", because having burnt their capital on Orange man, they have left themselves vulnerable to something far worse than he.