How do we change these behaviors if we don't lead users to it as an industry? Do you want to make the web a better place or just raise your conversion rate? I don't know if there is a "right" answer.
I think if people think and react in a certain way, there is nothing wrong with that, and web design should evolve around how people act as opposed to the other way around.
Then again I don't work in either any sort of UX or web development, so maybe I should keep my mouth shut here :)
I don't however see how changing these behaviors would make the web a worse place.
And I agree, I don't see how changing the behaviors would make the world a worse place, but I think if you want to make a case for having the entire industry lead users to certain behavior patterns, an argument should be made for why this is actually improving the web, beyond one person's aesthetic preferences.