The process absolutely involves skill and intelligence and most of it is not tedious. Doing a few sample questions, trying to solve a quadratic is not 'tedious', for example. Neither is coding your first little program.
Though college is not for everyone, it's objectively not a 'sheeple producing scam', and 'most people' know that. You're entitled to your opinion, surely, but I don't think you speak for the masses on that one.