tl;dr: it’s a real problem; it’s also one we can transcend and grades themselves and accompanying resentment are the biggest problems ime
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If you find this upsetting, I would recommend taking a moment to consider how cruel grades can be. Yes, celebrating excellence is a lovely thing. But until college, one’s life is not fully self-determined. Many bright and gifted individuals do not experience the love and gift of learning and developing the intellect; but come to be oppressed by it; feeling they must put up with it just to get to the next stage when they may finally find freedom — my current working definition of authentic ‘freedom’ being ‘loving what one is doing, being loved by others for it, and having ones needs met lovingly’.
At Yale, a rare few have this kind of ‘freedom’ already — they love what they’re studying, excel at it, and have peers, mentors, or lecturers that enjoy them. And they get great grades; sometimes they are valedictorian and they compose some of Phi Beta Kappa.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those with exceptional potential; yet were not offered freedom — namely, they were asked to learn and engage in things from mean or unfair parents, teachers, and peers. One can find themselves stuck in this realm without escape, in part on account of the lack self-determination one has before they leave the home.
Achieving this level of freedom, once one realizes they don’t possess it — which itself can be a difficult journey; let alone then doing what it takes to free oneself — to engage in life primarily with love for what one is doing, to be loved by others for what one is doing, and have all of one’s needs met is yet a more demanding, yet tenable journey; but is very personal and there may be no guides, though there are helpers (eg for some, those who ask questions like “what brings you alive and those around you alive?” or “how can you do what others love of you in a way that you, too, love?” — and encouraging you to not give up on attempting the search for an answer for oneself and to encourage you to take care of yourself so you have the time and space and enough love to continue on the journey, its attended contemplations and experiments).
Anger at grade inflation, though, strikes me as like begrudging a prisoner that was next to you in a chain gang; being angry and upset with them — which is reasonable to a degree if they take their freedom and don’t live ‘freely’ (ie seeking to oppress others for their benefit — which except for the rare sociopath is wildly unpleasant, as attractive as the money or other benefits it comes with can look; which is not to say money is bad). As opposed to directing one’s resentment to those who are binding them; and then finding a way to transcend all that bullshit and to truly be free.