"The only way lockdown is going to work is if every pawn in my game does exactly as I tell it"

There is no such thing as 100% compliance. Especially not in something like this. If a government cannot manage a lockdown around that, it's their issue.

ultimately be perceived to have failed

Because it fucking did.

People were told that in the worst case scenario, a total lockdown for a month or so would eliminate the majority of the virus and that there might be localised outbreaks afterwards.

The WHO have came out and told governments to stop utilising lockdown as a primary method of control for a reason. It isn't practical, unless your nation had few cases to begin with.