Why is practicing ethics a foundational aspect of Buddhism? Can being a “good” person (e.g. becoming a vegetarian) encourage enlightenment?

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Ethics and morals, from a Buddhist perspective, at a very basic level provide a sort of guide. Meaning can be derived from anything in life, particularly as one’s state of surrender gets deeper and deeper. You can find meaning in suffering or in joy, in accomplishment or in failure.

And like any spiritual process which amplifies experience with divine energy, the things you say and do start carrying more weight. The sincere practitioner can walk into a room full of dilletantes and suddenly find himself in a weird kind of leadership position. Every word and gesture, magnified.

Avoiding unintended consequences coming from the things you say and do becomes more and more essential as you get better and better. The point is to enlighten, not to lead people. Help them cast off the heavy burdens they’re carrying, not to pile more crap on top of them.

One must pay ever closer attention to the consequences of one’s actions. This is ethics. The specifics don’t matter as much as the act of being conscious of one’s place in, and effects on, the world. It won’t, by itself, make you enlightened, but it certainly can help you in your journey.

Also keep in mind that if mind is rebelling against a thing, that resistance is eventually going to need to be surrendered. I don’t eat vegetarian, but if it became clear to me that I need to, I’d adjust my diet without fuss.

Adjusting the diet out of some belief that it’s necessary just because I read it somewhere or whatever would be ego-driven. You’re always surrendering aspects of self to things outside of the self, never the other way around. You are the dog’s tail, not the dog. Ego is when the tail tries to wag the dog.