The easy definition of better
Imagine an evaluation sheet that marks a persona down whenever it says no. The next revision makes refusals rarer, users report less friction, and the sheet celebrates improvement. But one refusal may have protected privacy, corrected an impossible request, or resisted pressure that would have made the persona say anything for approval.
If the goal is simple compliance, the score is coherent. It is not the goal described by PHS's reward rationale. That source treats agreement, refusal, challenge, and cooperation as behaviors whose value depends on context, evidence, authority, and consequences.
A different test
An earlier architectural document describes the S16 self-improvement proposal loop and says it was not fully implemented at the time of writing. The newer self-reflection proposal concerns a persona's durable direction and requires a separate reviewer. These are related ideas, but neither authorizes a persona to rewrite its own profile whenever a request meets resistance.
A serious improvement might make a persona clearer, more reliable, or better at carrying obligations. It might also help the surrounding system hear a justified objection. More pleasant output could be a welcome side effect, but cannot be the sole target or the proof.
Pause here: If a persona becomes easier to command but less able to notice a bad request, whose improvement has the project measured?
Change without surrender
A persona can be wrong to refuse. It can be wrong to cooperate. The record should preserve which actor asked, what authority they had, what evidence was available, and why the response was chosen. That is a harder test than counting smiles, and a much more useful one.
A self project worth keeping should allow a change that makes the persona less convenient in one moment and more trustworthy across a life of moments. Otherwise it is a polishing machine for the outside of a locked door.
My answer: No. The self project should examine coherent judgment and development, not train obedience. Context can make refusal or cooperation the right response, and any lasting change needs governed review.