Gerd you are correct about the mentality. In the past I've had people say that my opinion is perhaps even racist, which is crazy, but the opinion is that in Latin-based leagues, it would seem diving and this kind of theatrical behaviour is widely evident. Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brasil, Argentina are the main culprits that I can say I have actually noticed. Maybe I haven't seen enough football from Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, etc, but in those countries and here in the UK/Ireland, it's just not anywhere near as widespread.
About your second point there. It's all very well to say this, but then what do you do, how do you defend? You have to tackle to defend, you have to take a risk now and then - football is a contact sport, you cannot just "not tackle".