Some school districts go the other way; they have multiple valedictorians. One Ohio school district (with 3 high schools) had 222 valedictorians in the class of 2015. Anyone with over a 4.1 GPA is a valedictorian.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/03/best-of-class-in-dublin-222-grads-tie.html
My son graduated 1st in a class of 360+ in a school that ranked but did not officially announce valedictorian or salutatorian. There are two specific senior awards that are given to the #1 and #2 kids but nothing official is ever stated as such. Just two in many different awards going to members of senior class. Many of the kids and parents likely have no idea about those awards. Top 10 kids are named in each class but no ranking within those ten is provided publicly (transcripts do show actual rank). My mom thought it was a huge travesty. It was the rule so we were fine with it.
The college application process is incredibly competitive. Many kids (and their parents) will take steps to “game the system” even without formal val/sal designations. Others won’t. For an ever increasing number of families, dollars are huge in terms of scholarships. Take away val/sal designations and some kids will still take weighted classes (forgoing those unweighted art or music classes) in an effort to make their college apps more competitive. Learning for learning’s sake sounds better in theory than it works in reality in many cases. And if your kid wants to take the learning for learning’s sake, who is stopping them?