Unimpressed with the argument. Different people play competitive games with completely different mindsets and you are also not just competing against your peers

Unimpressed with the argument. Different people play competitive games with completely different mindsets and you are also not just competing against your peers, for example, you may be playing someone with much less free time to dedicate to the game. Same goes for some real life hobbies. That's significantly different than getting to the top 5% in your class, where everyone is supposed to be peers and dedicated. I think this really comes down to the level of competition for each particular activity. Getting "Legend" in Hearthstone for example means pretty much nothing (can be achieved while playing quite casually), while getting top 5% in a cellular biology class with 80% premed students is very impressive.