One component of the 'gamers are lazy' stereotype probably comes from the fact that most of the people authoring that opinion are the gamers' parents; who'll just perceive it in the way they will. They are also the generation which like to hear their opinions reflected in prime-time news, which gladly obliges.

Gaming is ubiquitous, in another decade I imagine that attitude will be on the way out.

Those are the obvious points though, I think it's more interesting to think about how the mechanical and repetitive aspects of gaming replace a naive, deep drive for precise actions which demand focus and skill, and move chaotic or unordered things towards some goal. In the 20thC that was probably fixing cars or working in a factory or building stuff. Good ways for satisfying the drive, if you have it.

And in a nice continuation of this relationship, the more that AI replaces work, the more I think leisure, work and gaming will coincide. Many gaming environments are good examples of behavioural economics in action: incentives, rewards, how changes to game balance (even perceived changes to balance) or the price/availability of cosmetics nudge or shove player behaviour... We could stab guesses at how to implement these patterns in a way that considers them economic activity.

I don't think gaming necessarily has to be 'better' than life for it to take up a great deal of it. It just has to have the right kinds of 'APIs' to satisfy that messy, obsessive, predatory/reward-loop hunger which appears in most men and plenty of women.

My central thesis is that a couple of decades leads us basically to the Matrix (though I'm hoping for a sunnier version).