As a completed CS PhD I would not claim incoming PhDs are that naive. It's quite common for a PhD to have no interest in becoming a prof or staying in academia.

As a completed CS PhD I would not claim incoming PhDs are that naive. It's quite common for a PhD to have no interest in becoming a prof or staying in academia. I, too, made it clear to my advisor that I absolutely do not want to become a professor. Many begin a PhD because they want to avoid becoming a code monkey at some company. They hope that the PhD opens doors to intellectually engaging work. And it often does. If you check the graduates of CS advisors, they often end up at prestigious, well-paid research labs. Or they simply start their own company based on work done in the PhD. I am not sure if the non-professor track would change anything. Most schools already do not require teaching because they want their CS PhDs to focus on research. This calculus might of course be completely different for other disciplines.