I think it's worth describing a couple examples where the original poster's logic does apply. Then I'll answer the question by (a) distinguishing those earlier scenarios from the photoelectric effect, (b) explaining why that earlier logic doesn't apply to the photoelectric current, and (c) deriving the equation for photoelectric current.
There are many contexts where increasing the speed $v$ causes the current $I$ to increase. As a first example, imagine that there are $n$ charge carriers per cubic meter traveling through a wire of cross-sectional area $A$. The charge of the charge carriers is $q$, and their drift speed is $v$. The current is given by $I = nAqv$, and thus the current $I$ is directly proportional to speed $v$ as long as $n$, $A$, and $q$ are constant. As a second example, if you send a proton around a particle accelerator $5,000$ times per second, the current is $I=(5000/\textrm{sec})(1.6\times10^{-19}\textrm{C})\approx8 \textrm{ atto amperes}$. But if you send the proton around a particle accelerator $10,000$ times per second, the current is twice as big, $I\approx16 \textrm{ atto amperes}$.
Here's why that drift speed equation and that logic don't apply to the photoelectric current: the photoelectrons are halted every time they completely one lap. Consider an electron that is ejected with high $KE$ from the metal plate, then moves around the circuit really fast, and finally returns back to the metal plate in a very short time. That electron won't be ejected again until another photon strikes it. So the photon density regulates the current, and electrons are ejected only as frequently as the photons arrive at the metal plate. If, somehow, the electrons were able to continue whizzing around the circuit as fast as they were originally ejected (without ever slowing down or being stopped), then higher speeds $v$ would produce higher currents. However, the ejected photoelectrons do not move with constant speed around the circuit, and thus the high initial ejection speed does not indicate how many laps the electrons make per second.
Similarly, the reason we can't look at the equation $I=nAqv$ and say "high speed $v$ implies high current $I$" is that the values in this equation are not constant. In the vacuum tube, the speed $v$ would be higher and the density $n$ of the charge carriers would be lower. In the wire where the electrons get "backed up," the speed $v$ would be lower and the density $n$ would be higher.
Now that we know we can ignore the effect of speed and focus only on the photons, let's derive the formula for the photoelectric current $I$. The power carried by the light/photons is:
$$\textrm{power}=\frac{\textrm{energy}}{t}$$
But the total energy carried by the light is equal to the number of photons multiplied by the energy per photon:
$$\textrm{energy}=nhf$$
Substituting gives:
$$\textrm{power}=\frac{nhf}{t}$$
$$\frac{P}{hf}=\frac{n}{t}\textrm{ }\textrm{ }\textrm{ }\textrm{ Eq. 1}$$
The quantity $\frac{n}{t}$ is the number of photons striking the metal plate per second. Only some of the incident photons eject electrons. Let's say the fraction of incident photons that actually produce photoemission is $k$. The photoelectric current $I$ is:
$$I=\left(\textrm{charge of electron}\right)\times\left( \textrm{number of electrons ejected per second}\right)$$
$$I=\left(e\right)\left(k\frac{n}{t}\right)\textrm{ }\textrm{ }\textrm{ }\textrm{ }\textrm{ Eq. 2}$$
Substituting Eq. 1 into Eq. 2 gives:
$$I=\frac{ekP}{hf}$$
where $I$ is the photoelectric current, $e$ is the elementary charge, $k$ is the fraction of photons that produce photoemission, $P$ is the power of the incident light, $f$ is the frequency of the incident light, and $h$ is Planck's constant.