No matter how smart you are, you still have to put in effort to achieve high results. If anyone graduates high school within the top 1%, if they say they did no work, they're lying.
I don't think laziness has anything to do with it. Whichever path someone coming out of highschool was to take, they would still have to put in effort. The J* cadetship is very demanding because is it such a short course. Just because they start at an airline long before someone working in GA does, doesn't mean they're lazy. Whether working at an airline or in GA, you're still working..no room for laziness.