Question

The purpose of life in this world.

Many times, when I asked rabbis why God created the world and created human beings in it, I was told that God does this because this is the way things will be best for us: after we work and invest effort in this world, we will reach the World to Come and receive reward.
In response to that answer, I always asked why God needed to create the whole world for this purpose. After all, He could have from the outset caused us to be in the state in which we are happiest and most fulfilled, in the best place that could possibly exist for us, and that would be that—without the whole long process.
As an excuse, they answered me that the way for a person to have what is best for him passes only through effort and investment, and not when everything is handed to him on a spoon,
that such is the nature of the world: when a person exerts himself and labors, he enjoys it more and is happier when he reaches the end and the result.
But there is a contradiction here!
Because if God created the world and can do anything, He could have created from the beginning a world in which, in order to reach the highest level of goodness and happiness, there would be no need to strive and invest effort, and precisely when everything is handed to you on a spoon, that would be the greatest pleasure.
He chose that true good can come only through the labor of one’s hands, and then He brought us down into the world so that we could succeed in receiving that good. But He could have decided from the outset that it would not be so, and that one would not need to invest and exert oneself in order to reach perfect good.
God could simply have created a world in which it is good for us without our having to do anything.