That is quite true also of defense attorneys. And so, often times, one can do very well with a court appointed attorney.
Court appointed counsel can sometimes be quite good, especially in the Federal system where they are relatively well paid. About ten years ago, I was before a panel at the 4th Circuit on a civil appeal. The case being heard before mine was a criminal matter being argued by a court appointed counsel. The issue was whether a drug sniffing dog had a sufficient track record of success to establish probable cause for a search. Apparently, this particular dog was not very good, and the panel was being asked to decide if a 60 or 70% false positive rate was good enough. Counsel was better prepared to argue his particular case than almost anyone else in that room, including the justices and their clerks. I was impressed, and so was the panel who complemented and thanked him effusively at the end of his presentation.