Such a practice is common and the government of El Salvador must have thought about it. Of course some real data verification will be done on wallets issued by Elsalvador, it won't be that easy to earn $30 with multiple wallet accounts. Verification of the original data is still required.
Not being forced to use an official wallet, of course, has a reason so that cryptocurrency users in El Salvador are saturated and have other options for using different applications. But what makes it interesting and must be used is the $30 reward for those who use and verify the data in the chivo wallet application.
If I am not wrong, when Coinbase was first launched in 2013, they had a similar airdrop. I don't remember the value exactly, but it was either
BTC0.01 or
BTC0.001 (back then the exchange rates were low). A majority of the users just created a new account, and then closed it as soon as they received the airdrop. But a small minority didn't dumped their coins immediately and started accumulating BTC. The latter group benefitted from the bull run of 2013, when the prices jumped by as much as 200x. The airdrop from Chivo sounds similar. KYC is needed, in order to stop scammers from creating dozens of accounts and claiming the airdrop with unfair means.
during that time the value is also low. it's the same with the El Salvadoran government, there has to be incentives to have more users and run their bitcoin economy there for massive adoption. the fees using their LN will be for their government i think it's fair. the KYC is the catch but they are not forcing the Chivo to all. if their citizen is aware of keeping their privacy, they will choose other wallets.
the government really is making a big test here, if they could set an example. the countries with currency problems will also follow like Lebanon and Iran. i'm hoping for the middle east countries to also follow the steps.