Yes, what you’re hearing here is not really teacher concern for students, but teacher concern for their jobs, which they obviously were not doing very well.
It’s true that the attitudes of the students can make it more difficult...somebody who thinks he’s cool just the way he is, even though he’s 15 and can’t read or add a couple of figures, is certainly going to be hard to teach. And as you say, it takes actual work.
I’ve been a tutor, I still enjoy tutoring, and I teach.
I always thought that the best training for any teacher is to go one on one with students.
Do that for a year or two and then work on a whole class. A good tutor will have some experience on how to teach students as well as be able to build up some confidence working one and one.
It really bothers me when I see poor teachers making excuses. I have to eventually clean up their messes by trying to get the student up to par.