I think mining is more profitable, especially for certain coins, as long as it can calculate the cost of spending and how many coins you get. In my group there is someone who likes to calculate the profit and loss of mining and he is not just mining certain coins based on one's profit.
They like to mine In order to earn coins and they are like to promote in this technology site, which they can earn profits by selling and buying due to fluctuated market.
As we know that it's just another ways to make money have some risks such as mining so I do not think mining is much more complicated than that of money miners. And thought about mining, simple as that is profitable to buy is that by mining you just keep getting coins as long as you keep mining temporarily by buying, once you run out of money, you can not get more coins.