A lot of people point out that it doesn’t make any sense that Harry and Ron didn’t like their schoolwork. Well I figured out why:
It’s because the magic system is just as boring in-universe as out of universe. It doesn’t make any sense in universe either. Harry and Ron realised Rowling’s magic system kinda stinks way before we did, because they spent all day learning it.
If Sanderson had been writing Harry Potter, then Harry and Ron would have liked learning magic as much as Hermione did (Also, Sanderson actually DID write a book about a super-school, it’s called Skyward, it’s good)
She made Hermione after herself. She needed the boys to be bad at magic or Hermione couldn’t save them. If they were bad because magic was that hard, that would make her a genius, which wasn’t what she was going for. The magical system was lame and the boys were bad at it because they were just unobservant undriven “boys”. It’s likely a combination of her worldview she’s painting and trying to set the stage that magic is everywhere and all around us and everybody can do it but they don’t just know exactly how.
Magic is that hard, but being a genius doesn’t make you good at it. Rote memorisation makes you good at it. Hermione isn’t a genius, she enjoys rote learning. Harry and Ron crave stimulation, and there’s none to be found in Rowling’s magic system. Rowling might have intended magic to be easy, but she made a mistake. Rowling enjoys rote memorisation, so it’s easy for her and her self insert, but not for normal people who want to be intellectually stimulated. Rowling accidentally made magic hard, and the story makes more sense with her mistake in it.
Harry doesn’t need to study or practice because, by accident of birth and circumstance, he’s naturally gifted at magic. Hermione isn’t naturally as gifted, but with hard work and dedication, she can do it all. Ron is neither, so he’s just the fuck up.