Without bringing any off-screen politics into it, I always wondered about Goku's potential and Vegeta's "hard work."Goku is a dumbass when it comes to how he trains and reaches new levels. In Super alone, he's raised the bar by risking life and limb and managed to achieve it more out of being stupidly-talented and incredibly durable than putting anything substantial in. Vegeta, on the other hand, wants to be "smarter" about his training but fails because he overlooks the zenki boost (a pretty major thing to overlook) and the fact that Goku isn't getting better by way of talent alone, but by pushing himself in situations no sane individual would allow themselves to be in willingly. While I don't agree with Goku's definition of "training", it's also childish for Vegeta to bitch that he worked twice as hard and only achieved half the results. Sometimes, you gotta risk something to gain something. Otherwise, don't bitch when your maximum effort with minimal risk nets you nothing.
Get ready for shitton of text.
Well, few things then, because there is a huge difference in how both of them act. One is retarded idiot and one is quite intelligent but prideful fella.
First of all, Goku often fights because he likes it and most of time to save Earth/people. Vegeta trains, because royal/saiyan pride and rivalry (but, after years on Earth he is turning to the same reason as Goku, meaning - he got soft). As we all already know, Saiyan's boost is often driven by emotion, like anger... but from what it seems, emotions like caring for family or wanting to save your planet are much more effective. Considering that Saiyans are a race that doesn't really give many fucks about their own kids, it would explain why they had such slow grow.
Zenkai boost lost a lot of meaning after Namek, sure it played a huge role in it, but not so much later on. Plus, there are a huge consistency issues with zenkai boost, and as Future Trunks theorized, it doesn't work anymore, as both Goku and Vegeta trained themselves to the point where they went above normal limits.
Another thing, Vegeta did accept that Goku is stronger and has more potential at the end of Buu saga and after that, the bitching really toned down (plus, it wasn't as that bad, often told by Vegeta's way of acting instead of him saying it over and over). But, it's worth noting that in DBS, Goku reached his SSJG form by sucking tits of other saiyans and it was said by Goku himself, that Vegeta reached it due to his training.
And don't forget that Goku himself isn't exactly just random dude, because it's worth to mention Bardock at this point. Considered low class warrior, he did reach a point where his power level got near that of King Vegeta himself, he also cared for his wife, sons, planet and in general was a really nice person by saiyan standards (and so was Gine). I am suggesting here, that while we know emotions play a huge role in Saiyans power (anger boosts, etc, as it's still a battle manga), but more caring driven fights give the best results. Also, Bardock was far from being a normal saiyan, so it shouldn't be wrong to assume that Goku also is different from normal saiyans (making Radditz a failure
). Back to Vegeta, if we look at the series, then we can easily say that his whining is greatly exaggerated and boils down to simple "I work so hard, harder than him and he still is better than me" and take a wild bet, because most of people would be like that in such situation.
And last thing, Goku will always be better... He is a protagonist. So to any Vegeta fans: lol, deal with it. Also: power levels are bullshit, even Toriyama himself wasn't giving as much fucks about that, he is not Eichiro Oda to keep it all in balance.
As I said, I generally see your points, but you are greatly exaggerating them to how it actually was. I would suggest going through manga again (or anime if you have time) and seeing for yourself. As for the DBS, I stopped watching before tournament of power started. After I gain back some extra time weekly, I will probably start watching again. So I am using only points based on all main/canon DB media to that point.