I hadn't thought of it that way - it's very plausible.
But some of the fraud in science is just lost purpose. If you need a certain number of publications to advance in your job, submitting fraudulent studies seems much more rewarding. And TVtropes doesn't have a similar issue - in part because of the lack of respectability you noted.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.