How about I just praise them if I genuinely feel they deserve it instead of picking and choosing when to praise in attempt to mold them into something I want them to be.
If it comes easy, why not just let it be. For some people it comes easy simply because they are interested in it. Forcing them into busywork is purpose defeating.
Demanding that someone go do meaningless work so they don't get to coast, while a different student has to bust their ass, is absurd. IMO that's often what it is. Teachers get frustrated by underachievers, and how they're often more successful than people that work very hard.
It's not fair, and it hurts to see, but that's life.
Run with it. If nature makes you feel that way then "more praise then she actually deserves" is a valid method. Maybe she actually deserves it, but most likely she is average and you're just playing out what every average parent feels.
Generally speaking eons of evolution has shaped "what comes naturally" to be the parenting traits most effective at enabling survival of the fittest or some other trait that enables mass propagation of genes. But survival of the fittest is just one possible definition of "best".