Indeed, part of the reason we have cars with as much fuel economy as we do is because of the persuit of performance. After all, look at VTEC - it was brought out on the 1989 CRX SiR and Integra XSi in Japan as the top of the line performance engine. It then surfaced on the Honda/Acura NSX, Prelude VTEC, del Sol VTEC, Integra GS-R, and so on.

Once it was well established as a performance mechanism, it was then used on high FE models like the Civic VX, HX, and in multi-stage VTEC, cylinder deactivation, etc. What started as a performance system was applied to maximize fuel economy. Increasing market acceptance is probably more important than trying to force marketing change at this point.