Rant: How to Deal with Lazy People at Work?

Context: I'm a recent graduate working for a decacorn startup with over a year of experience. I'm fueled by curiosity—working on different things, not being dependent on others, and taking ownership of abandoned tasks. However, I struggle working with people who are entrusted with responsibility but never deliver. In such situations, how do I stay curious and learn while not taking ownership of work that's supposed to be done by them?

Examples:

• I was tasked with overseeing the tech implementation of a project since all other leads' bandwidth was reserved. I saw this as an opportunity to work across multiple teams, identify their blockers, and communicate project timelines—all while working on my own tasks. Everyone appreciated my work.

• Another mission-critical project comes. I apparently can't lead since the new senior hire (2 quarters old) needs to be trusted with more work. This person is the laziest I've ever met. Uses AI. Doesn't even try to understand what they did. Whenever I sit to review their code, every other line needs to be pointed out. The review changes are so vast that ultimately all of them are thrown under the bus to meet deadlines.

• Even when they lead, they don't plan stuff beforehand.

Now here comes the tricky part: Should I take ownership again?

My reservations: this project is seen as them leading its completion. My contributions will be overlooked. But I also don't appreciate sitting around waiting for disasters to happen.

If asked the same in interviews, a lot of you may have answered that sitting it out and escalating to managers should be my next step. But let's just be honest—these things don't work practically.

• I've indirectly told them multiple times that they need to step up and understand before pushing garbage. No effect. They're two quarters old—no difference.

• Manager is well aware. The only reason to keep them is that the manager could justify their bad hire.

I know it sounds like a rant, but I'm genuinely concerned. If you're someone who loves building things with purpose, putting in extra effort, going the extra mile just for the love of it, how do you navigate working with someone who is such a vibe killer? Has anyone faced anything similar? Would really appreciate your thoughts.