Academia is rotten, not all of it, but the most part. When I started i thought Academia was the ideal world where everything is perfect, uncorrupt and based on a perfect system. Then I started to realise that it's not: peer-reviewed system does not work how it should, impact factor is bullshit, publishing is bullshit and last but not least, in my field, there is lots of reproducibility issues. Also, the stronger labs in USA can publish whatever they want, when they want, as they want, where they want, while for us (in Europe) is extremely hard.
But again, at least in my case, I have accepted it, for the pleasure of keep doing science.
All these fellowships are hard to get, and there is no perfect system (maybe a lottery for the people that passed a certain threshold, there is literature out there exploring this option). Most of the fellowship are based on your publication record and how important is your PI.
Marie Curie include other things (outreach and so on) and i will be careful with saying is bullshit, as these activities are ESSENTIAL for the correct development of a scientific project. I believe that science has to be open, and the citizens have to be involved, as they payed for it. In this context MSCA actions are doing a good job by including non scientific aspects.
In my case, i wrote everything with very little help from my host (both PI and institution) and after a year of preparation. For instance, i received a lot of help from my previous institution (presentations, one to one meetings with PI that got MSCA actions before, correction service) that has an office with a specialization only in MSCA actions. Of course, institution with money will have couple of people helping with these actions, because it's lots of money and prestige.
I can imagine there are PI or institutions that do all the work, because they are successful and they want to get the money. Considering the actual situation (low funding and high competitiveness), I don't blame them. I would not do like them, i would help the applicant, making sure she/he gets the fellowship.
At the end of the game, i will probably not get it. This is the 6th fellowship I am trying to get in the past year and a half (the previous 5 were unsuccessful, of course
) and I have other 3 submitted that i'll might not get. It is still worth to me, so i will keep trying until i get something, even if the system is not perfect or rotten!
Again, good luck to everyone!