Even back then, it wasn't easy to make the money and although I don't agree with your sentiment that money isn't supposed to be made the easy way, I see the point that you're trying to make, bounty like ICO investing needs a little bit of luck, you could join the most potential project and it ended up doing well but there are so many participants that it turned out almost useless while someone else might join a seemingly useless project and turns out to be one of very few participants and make bank there.