I'm not completely sure, but as far as I know, at least in recent history, it has never happened that the host of the World Cup did not pass the group and not advance to the knockout stage of the competition.
However, due to the quality of their team, Qatar does not deserve to play in this World Cup and I believe that they have a minimal chance to pass the group and reach the knockout stage of the competition.
If they aren't the hosts, we certainly wouldn't be watching them at this world championship, just as we haven't seen them at previous world championships either.
Maybe we don't have much information about Qatar. however, what most people rarely know is that they are the finalists of the 2019 asia cup. meaning, they deserve to appear in this world cup even if they get an automatic ticket because they are the host. Qatar's football development began to be better than the rest of Asia, they even overthrew South Korea and Japan.
Qatar is ranked 50th in FIFA, not too bad in my opinion personally. although, we agree their chances are very slim to qualify for the next phase.