In grad school, we were specifically told not to get too many A's and to focus on publications. If some industrious type got mostly (or all) A's the next question from their committee was: Why aren't you working on publishing?

C's though were failing. Still, you had to try really hard to fail. The B's were inflated.

The difference is probably domains - a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience doesn't prepare you for much else than doing science. There, judgment for a tenure-track job begins and ends with publications. And no one will want to see grades and no CV ever includes them.