It is true that the English Wikipedia is currently falling down on the permissive side of the fair use spectrum, often to the detriment of the search for free content. It is a legitimate question whether a fair use implementation is possible that does not open the floodgates to non-free content.
One idea that came up on the German Wikipedia, which faces a similar problem, is to have the upload link in the sidebar point to the Commons, and to only have Special:Upload (for local uploads) linked to from some policy page where the purpose of local uploads is explained. Through this simple "security by obscurity" measure, lazy uploads could perhaps be prevented.
The current proposed fair use policy also seeks to address the concern by being very explicit in that "logos and publicity shots" can be fair use, but most other images can't, specifically no photos by other news organizations. I don't know how enforcable that is in practice.
Erik