Some sports, sure. But basketball is pretty popular and it seems like a pretty good chunk of the strategy there is drawing fouls.

Tbh the penalties for simulation in a lot of leagues have been turning the tides on the egregious theatrics. I'd agree what you were saying was a lot more prevalent, say a decade or so ago.

You'll still always be able to cherry pick incidents, and some leagues will be worse than others for it, but the game has moved on a bit, and you do see it way less frequently than we did even just a few years ago.

Edit: elsewhere in the thread reminded me of the other aspect of this

There's also the tactical fouls which are (whether you agree with it or not) part of the modern game. A player can weigh up the risk of getting sent off if they think it might prevent the opposition from otherwise scoring. These kinds of fouls can look pretty cynical to those unfamiliar with it, not least of all because they tend to also be softer than genuine fouls as the players tend to not want to actually injure themselves and others. So just enough of a foul to stop play, but ideally not even pick up a yellow card, and often in this scenario if the victim of the foul clocks what's going on, they'll try to hit the ground harder to increase the chances the fouling player gets booked.

A player (or even team) can probably only get away with this once or twice in a game before they piss off the ref though, and players will start getting sent off. In the same vein teams want to avoid getting a reputation for it too, otherwise they'll end up facing much closer scrutiny.

"culture friction" because people don't like it when the players of a game cheat?

the act that soccer players put on to act like they're much more seriously injured than they are when fouled.

Far from all players do that and it's reviled by football (as opposed to handegg) fans too, as well as against the rules of the sport.