That is also a good point. While I never had the option of getting an API back in that-which-shall-not-be-named when I was a class-leader in a high-end raiding guild, the recruitment process was a gauntlet of horror for a lot of the young and hopeful victi... recruits. Hell, even after an extensive process with applications, interviews and background researches (including forum posting and former guild references and so on) we could even take the time and effort to take the piss out of them. I once had one of the hopefuls kite a World Dragon from the northern parts of a continent all the way to the southernmost zone before I even accepted him as a trial. Including going through a hostile faction's zone to do it.
Taking immense pleasure in truly tearing apart applicants for shitty grammar/spelling, poor effort in the application, lack of skill, lack of brains, lack of whatever was pretty much both in the interest of the guild and funny at the same time. So yeah, harsh standards for entry isn't exactly unique to Eve. It's so much more important in games like Eve where there's true vulnerabilities in corporate mechanics, but hardly unique to it.
The more I think about it, the more distaste I have for that first panel in the comic. Bloody casuals. Always have to be so careful when smearing them across the in-game landscape, or you'll get newbie/casual fuckwit all over yourself. Eww.