Well I am running the Sprint JB release on my AT&T GS3, but same difference I suppose.
But although your theory is good, but I doubt it is the WiFi since I hardly ever have my WiFi on and my Android OS runs just as high, sometimes as high as 30%.
Personally I think it is either JB itself, or Samsung's version of it, since JB on my Nexus 7 tablet runs the Android OS under 5%.
I haven't had any other JB devices to compare, but at work (AT&T), we release the Note II tomorrow which comes with JB. I'll keep an eye on our demo model and see how the Android OS/System runs on there.