Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-34661853-20181111160651/@comment-734582-20181114065925

LegionZero wrote: Because it stopped being a theme as of the 4SWW arc. It was never a theme. It was Rock Lee's theme, but then his hard work lost against a genius with innate power. Naruto's hard work lost against Neji's genius until he tapped into Kurama (which isn't hard work). Hard work has never won battles.

The main theme of Naruto is to never give up. Hard work is merely the initial step.