By the laws, an H1B is not cheap. No big corps would pay them much lower than what they are already paying citizens at the same position. Then add on lawyers and sponsorship fees and having an H1B is much more costly than hiring citizens.

The fact that H1B is still being favorable despite higher cost speaks volume about how it really is. In many ways, H1B is one of the reasons the US is so competitive. It takes in talents (like it or not, many H1B are just as good or more skilled than a native), force them to work much harder than a regular resident would ever want to, make them pay taxes on incomes that are higher than natives, then discard them after a few years since not everyone can have residency or can wait that long.

A H1B will always avoid conflict, keep their head down, and straight up afraid of even being anywhere near a crime much less committing it. They are an ideal underclass that can be exploited easily.

And for that reason, in capitalist America, H1B will not go away. They will try to fix some abuses, raise the barrier, make things slightly more difficult, etc. But the F1 to H1B gravy train will continue. An obvious way is to favor US degree holders to make the expensive universities here more attractive, limit abuses, while still cater to the anti-immigrant crowd.

I bet if there is a H1B reform, this will very likely be one of the changes.