I'm not sure I follow. You're suggesting financially locking out high academic performers from higher education? It's not like being successful in high school magically solves the problem of modern college tuition.
Scholarships for the best students are given partly to obtain or retain those students to the institution. If I have offers from Harvard and Princeton, but one will give me $20K, that influences my choice and that school gets a star student. That’s competition.
Those same schools ALSO subsidize places for students who are unable to pay. Of course some students are in both categories.