We never did. High sec PvP only promotes the mindset of gutless, safe, profit-from-every kill loot farming. Not do those players (in general) “learn PvP” and then move to null. They stay in highsec forever farming easy kills. Feel free to look at CODE. or Safety. or any high sec wardeccer corp.
EVE certainly needs a growth and progression path to funnel players away from high sec PvE and into more challenging parts of the game, as well as reasonable methods for doing so.
But loot-farming easy safe kills in high sec definitely isn’t that growth path.