I think you may have missed the point entirely. Anything worth doing is worth doing to the best of your ability.

It's up to you to determine how you go about that. I'm sure the schools are not looking merely to pump out "competent" providers. I would suspect that the best providers (in any field) are those that genuinely love the profession and pursue it accordingly.

Not sure why it seems offensive to encourage someone to confirm within themselves that anesthesia is what they love and to tackle that with their strongest game.