Not for small miners.
Even with low electricity the shipping and cost of the units including all the peripheral add-ons you need really doesn't make any sense. This has been the case since the price drop of BTC.
Yes, sad to say, yes!
I'm paying hand over fist for electricity and trying to be as careful as I can manage about buying new (spelt more efficient) miners. It's entirely clear to me I'm not making money, but it surely doesn't help when manufacturers work the deck against me. All I'm asking is that Bitmain refund me their overcharge (not suggesting it was intentional). That 1/3 BTC represents days of KWH expenditure at 14.5cts each. I figure I can only possibly continue to mine BTC until the next halving, after that it'll be just impossible. As you mentioned, here and there I'm also mining Alt, but again as you mentioned, it's pure gamble/risk, though isn't it all!