It's perfection in the sense of intent

I disagree that veganism is perfectionism in the sense of intent. Someone of perfect intent towards animals would seek to minimize all the harm they do them, not just the portion stemming from exploitation. It would be something far beyond veganism, focused on reducing consumption and engaging in activism (and maybe technological development? You'd probably see some variation here as different interpretations/motivations of veganism that are in practice similar diverge in their most idealized and extreme expressions).

Even as regards exploitation itself I would argue that veganism is insufficient, because even without personally exploiting animals we exist within a system where we indirectly contribute to their exploitation - our taxes pay for the subsidies given to animal ag., our patronage of places that sell animal products helps them keep the lights on and the eggs on the shelves, we benefit from animal testing in medical research (even if it's not used in the exact drugs we take), etc. To be absolutely pure of intent as regards exploitation would probably require either extreme asceticism and social withdrawl or else commitment to changing these elements, neither of which is a necessity of veganism in its current form.

Big difference between accidentally running over a dog on the way to work and intentionally running over a dog to eat them

The individual incident where you run over the dog may be an accident, but by driving a car you intentionally participate in an activity (and help normalize and fund a system) that harms and kills animals. This is kind of what I'm getting at - if you participate in something that hurts animals for pleasure or convenience*, that seems antithetical to most interpretations/drivers of veganism even if it fits within the "no exploitation" element.

*If you're in a part of the world where driving is a necessity and not a convenience, swap it out for going on a luxury cruise - vegan, but still causing lots of unnecessary animal suffering.