This was also my observation but in the reverse direction. I turned down a place at Cambridge to do my undergrad at Edinburgh a few years ago (for various reasons, not relevant here). It was only the top n% of students in the cohort who'd turn up for tutorials (prepared, or indeed at all), do assignments without cheating, ask questions in lectures, etc. Getting high grades in exams was mostly a memorization game. There was a really high workload but that was more due to busywork than intellectual challenge.

> This was also my observation but in the reverse direction.

I don’t see the “reverse direction” part. What you are describing and what owlbite is describing is the same thing seemingly.

What do you mean by “reverse direction”?