Lies cannot make anything better. Dishonesty is the choice to turn toward greater misery by turning away from acknowledging reality. You cannot turn away from reality to any degree without reducing good and causing outsized harm.
No matter how glamorous they seem, the expected benefits of dishonesty evaporate in context of the long-term consequences that inevitably follow. A lie can be enticing for those who ignore or do not know the long-term negative consequences it will bring. Lying in any way will always bring with it more sorrow, pain, and other negative consequences than whatever you avoided by lying. In the end, it is always apparent that lying was a poor choice, but most never learn or accept this lesson, no matter how many times they experience it.
The benefits of any lie are always far exceeded by their eventual cost. When you knowingly lie about reality, whether through denying obvious signs of a needed course correction, making false excuses for your failures, or acting contrary to what you say matters to you, you will always make things worse. Everything that comes from dishonesty is worse than everything that doesn’t.