I don't think it is just pressure from above. I think a lot of professors would sincerely prefer to not give out any grades (as is done at some universities), o

I don't think it is just pressure from above. I think a lot of professors would sincerely prefer to not give out any grades (as is done at some universities), or at least to give them an extremely low importance, and grade inflation is a way to approach this within the current system.