Most scholars see the Old Testament as incorporating stories that the Israelites acquired from dominant and much larger foreign cultures and from the Israelites experiences during their Babylonian and Egyptian captivity. The Old Testament is thus more derivative than formative of other cultural accounts. My guess is that the story of the Tower of Babel was developed by the Israelites to explain a failed construction they saw in Babylon.
Not if you closely examine them. In my seminary classes we looked at a lot of these arguments. The evidence was in favor of the OT influencing the other cultures.
The Tower of Babel account makes it clear the people tried to build a tower to Heaven. It is true it failed. But that event also explains how we got the various languages around the world.
If Genesis isn't an accurate account of events the rest of the Bible has to be called into question. I think that's why a lot of "scholars" have taken the position you noted.