And as a competitor, if I'm interviewing with someone and they aren't demanding a high level of success, day 1, I'm going to wait for someone else who does.
I see the disconnect. There's a difference between:
1) Organizational expectations to which an owner and/or GM holds coaches/scouts accountable.
2) Team expectations to which a coach holds players (and in a good situation, to which team leaders hold their teammates).
Regarding (2) ... if I were a head coach and a player lets on like "Nah ... I know we're not worried about going to the playoffs, so I'm going to take it easy with practice, meetings, film and all that. I can get serious next season" -- of course you come down on that player like a ton of bricks.