Yes, this is true and is a good way to think about it. I’d take it all the way to the end and say that they did all the work for the primary reason of doing the work: to learn the material, and to have the experiences! Valuing learning for the sake of learning is a transition that some people don’t make until grad school, or even later. The earlier that a person can have that as a primary motivator, the better.
We get so caught up in box-checking, we lose sight of the main purpose of education: to teach us useful stuff and to make us better people. With that purpose in mind, our kids’ educations and activities ideally are not wasted on anything. We’ve tried hard to teach our kids to primarily approach learning things for their inherent value, rather than as a means to an end, but it’s a struggle for sure! And it’s often not the way that K-12 education is framed.
Think of all the cool stuff your kids have learned, and all the great experiences they’ve had. Getting into whatever universities is merely the icing on the lovely cake!