I think you somewhat touched upon what I believe is the root of the problem:

> highly incentivized to get high grades, not necessarily to learn the material

Based on my own experiences and observations, I think grading is a far larger issue than cheating. I am not convinced that good grades are necessarily reflective of enrichment nor how much material has been learned. If a person makes the a high grade in a particular class, what does that actually mean?

I made high grades in plenty of classes that I couldn't tell you anything about what I actually learned.