It also matches with my experience fwiw. The biggest issue I saw with qualitative is that it almost always was used to reinforce an existing idea that the PM has. I've never heard a PM say they learned something surprising and are reconsidering their initial idea.
It's possible I've not worked with a good PM, but the fact remains that I haven't seen the industry _incentivize_ the "good PM" behavior you're describing nor have there been consequences for "bad PMs", so does "good" and "bad" really mean anything?
There are lots of companies where talking to customers is a requirement for a PM to have continued employment. I’ve worked for more than a few. Seems to me that’s a pretty significant incentive.
