It's easy to be smart for the historical data. ETH was worth 5$ over a year ago and people rushed buying graphic cards from spring 2017 when the prices were allready high.
In my eyes You are actually comparing mining to gambling.
Are you saying mining is gambling? Because I very very much disagree. With mining I have something that has a value (computers and cards) that is also producing something with a speculative value. Once I realize that gain on the speculative value I then have even more value. I could easily sell my entire setup for close to what I paid for it - there was a time when I could have sold it for probably close to double. I do not view mining as gambling in any way. It is a business investment and must be treated as such.