What value GDP

An eminent Cambridge (England) professor of economics discovered,
after investigation, that a 10% growth of a particular nation turned
out to be a real growth of 2% when he factored in destruction of
assets. It occured to me that GDP, a measure of economic activity was
perhaps irrelevant; a bit like measuring the amount of gambling taking
place and ignoring the winnings and losses.

What I want to know is why do nations not present a balance ***
which would make it easier to establish their financial performance.
Surely this would not be difficult for most governmental statistics
departments.

Any ideas?
.