First of all, they were not making this comment in order to justify why they didn't get promoted. They were describing levels in amazon to people that were clue

First of all, they were not making this comment in order to justify why they didn't get promoted. They were describing levels in amazon to people that were clueless about it. You also seem to be inadverdently supporting their point. If it takes "a special person" to be an L7, doesn't it also require "effort" to become that person? The person is simply saying that they are not even making the effort they think is necessary to be considered for an L7 since they think there is too little upside to justify that effort. To support their point they mentioned that another friend we hardly see anymore became an L7, their intense schedule and workload being the reason we don't see them anymore. It seemed pretty believable in that context.