i don't agree on bitcoin mining being a bad way to earn bitcoin, it depend
if you have free electricity or at least very cheap, you can do it without thinking, you will have a very high chance to roi, without doing the trick of selling your miners after 3 months
with that trick you can actually take big profit and in a short time, if you invest big
Im never hear about free electricity, all country give high fee for miner, i think buy and hold bitcoin is better than mining at this time
I heard somewhere on Saudi Arabia they have free electricity. Just quite not sure , maybe someone from Saudi Arabia or somewhere on UAE can confirm it

I agree with your point buying and holding is quite better nowadays than mining, especially on places with high cost electricity.