I think almost everything in the current market can be called gambling. Especially in cases where a person, not understanding the issue, acts on a whim after reading exclamation headings about NTF.
90% of NTFs are not bought and are useless. Those that buy usually buy 1 or 2 times. This is a beginner trap.
You are right that many people make their decisions just based on another's advice, without their own research and understanding of the situation. People just enter the game to make money on it, they buy expensive things like axies in Axie Infinity, this way they spend 1200$, but they are not interested in the game itself, so it is a real risk when you don't understand and just follow the crowd.
The best strategy I have found so far is with NFT games, those that are from the "Play to Earn" legacy, the best strategy that many apply is to buy at the presale, then sell at the public sale, and then re-buy a lot cheaper and with that money enter the NFT game until the game has a lot of FOMO and can sell what you invested, this is the fashion, it is for this reason that NFT games are so famous. As an example is Axie Infinity, Plant vs Undead, and there are many more, in fact those who could not enter their private and public sales are confused with the profits that the game can generate.