Why is talent and hard work so easily dismissed?

I've been frustrated before and I'll be frustrated again but I don't know that I'll ever understand. Another school talent show has come and gone. I actually appreciate DS's school talent show because unlike DD's elementary, DS's show is almost entirely filled with kids actually taking lessons and working on skills. You'd assume that the majority of audience were there to support their own child and so could appreciate the work going in but they were still a terrible audience.

For example, the 9-year-old who played her own piano accompianment as she sung a Disney song got polite applause despite the fact that she was really very good (I was incredibly impressed with her piano skills and her singing was clear and on key.) The girl who mumbled through a canned