The best part is that this is already how grades are weighted at any accredited school.
Very much education level and field dependent. It's certainly the case that high schools will grade on coursework more. And, further, many fields primarily grade based on papers, because these are the currency of knowledge, and research skills are difficult to test in an exam setting.
> research skills are difficult to test in an exam setting
I understand you're not saying it's impossible, but is it really that much of a pain for a real human to just read the paper?