> No it doesn't require that because the vast majority of people aren't rational actors and they don't optimize for the quality of their work - they optimize for their own comfort and emotional experience.
People are rational, and the example you give actually shows that; they prefer reduced workload, so they optimize for their own comfort and emotional experience. What isn't rational about that?
> What isn't rational about that?
If people made decisions the way you described, by carefully considering and accepting trade-offs then I would agree that they are rational actors.
But people don't do that, they pick an outcome they prefer and try to rationalize it afterwards by claiming that trade-offs don't exist.