Interesting, though not surprising. We say we value hard work, but we like a natural (think of stories where the hero is naturally good at something - Harry Potter, Belgarion, Neo, John Wick, Jason Bourne, Luke Skywalker)

We humans seem incapable of looking at performance rather than who is performing. It reminds me of the research around why there weren't many women in orchestras - it turned out that if the panel saw a woman playing, they rated the performance less favorably. The women's auditions weren't judged fairly until all applicants played behind a screen and took off their shoes (no clacking high heels).