Mining is profitable but we know that there are a lot of scammers here so users are deprived of their rewards after mining for a long time. If a good project like Bitcoin mining can be related to patience for a long time, then there is a risk of profit at some point. But we can already see that in most cases there are some projects in which after mining users for a long time, they make various promises and later deprive them and cheat them. I have been mining for a long time but could not make much profit from it like Pi mining, people have been doing it for a long time but very few people have been rewarded here. However, those who have a lot of patience are the ones who mine for a long time, but they do not know whether they will be able to profit in the end and whether they will get the reward, so I think it is a waste of time here.
Some people are like you in that they are angry about mining plans that need spending over long time which cannot be paid back with ease. I agree that apps may be time wasters, but would also like to tell you that reason behind other way is that Bitcoin mining is what causes money to think other way. It is not game but real business which is difficult and out of which miners have got money, not with help of middle team, but with help of rules.
Anyway, to my mind, when project lacks seen code base or real market value which you can really see on exchange it is likely only helping makers to get payment in ads. After all you are right most of people would just get along better with keeping what works or with getting some skill info over time before using some new tap to mine apps.