Not that I disagree with the Op but he did not mention the scenario where the price has a steady increase or even new spike which would give people ROI at least in the short term.
Hardware cost is mentioned but not the price of bitcoin.
Well, when we talk about ROI normally we don't factor in price increase of Bitcoin. If we do, we might as well buy Bitcoin and do nothing.
Yep. Think of mining as buying BTC and receiving them sometime in the future. I'll offer anyone the same deal as a miner that won't mine as much BTC as it costs in it's lifetime. You give me 10BTC (think of this as the cost of your miner) now and in 1 month (or 3 months or 6months, whatever, you choose) I'll give you back 9BTC (the lower BTC return of miner equivalent). Heck I'll even let you pay me in USD, that way you might ROI on the "investment", right? Hah.