In 2017, some bounties were profitable. Some airdrops were disguise as bounties. But most airdrops were not profitable in 2017 too, not only in 2018. Some didn't get into an exchange.
This means that the factors that affected the market had been mostly favorable. It was just a month of surge that did not last long but had immensely great effect on the business and investment of the crypto market. Well about the era, we can have another boom with prices much higher than those back in 2017 but you do not get the market revived so quick. It is not a matter of days. Hopefully after staying calm for more than a month, the market might go in the recovery phase in the next few moths.