This reminds me of the guys that quit playing WoW because when they started playing things were 'harder' and now everything is 'spoon fed' to new players. "I had to level to 60 the hard way and now people can buy level 90."
I know it's not exactly the same, but pathfinder is what you personally make of it. I understand it's a community, and if you are seeing such a negative effect on your community, maybe you should find a better community to play with. It's not the rules of PFS that are damaging the quality of your games, it's the personnel. And if everyone in your area enjoys cheating the system, but you... then it sounds like you're the problem, not the solution. Let them have their fun.
PFS is the coolest thing in the world, you have a set of rules you have to go by, and as long as you stay within those confines, you can go play with anyone else in the world and have a good time. D&D was horrible, for the simple fact that you couldn't take your character and play it anywhere else, no reporting or logging of games etc. You had to stay within a single circle of friends with a character (obvious exceptions to that bold statement).
I have been through 10 levels of the Emerald Spire as of now, and it has been a nice break from the typical 'roleplay/skill check' heavy pathfinder scenarios. I enjoy roleplaying, I enjoy having skills, manipulating one of the female npc VCs into partaking in my celestial obedience (Arshea ftw). But there are times when I enjoy a good dungeon crawl, which is what those events give you and if you add up the experience for the kills within a level of the spire you will see it adds up proper.
The fact that I can take that Emerald Spire character and run a few scenarios with it outside of the spire makes it awesome. Sure I don't have the same fame/prestige as others my level, but I manage. And that character isn't an alpha for playing inside the spire for multiple levels before branching out, it just means I have to do most of my playing at slow progression. He has been on slow progression for a looooong time now, and would have been even without playing outside scenarios due to 16 levels of the spire and level restraints.
As for using 3xp modules to 'power level' your character or GM stars, that's just silly. Any GM can report/say, 'my 3 friends and I ran 6 scenarios this week,' and give themselves two levels. Any player can look at his nat 1 on a die and say, 'I got a 20, rolling to confirm.' If people want to cheat or abuse a system, they will always find a way. Those people aren't cheating anyone but themselves.
There will always be people that will use the 'God code' and never play the game the way it was intended... they usually find themselves quite lonely.