I have gained and lost lots of money via trading. I partially agree with you, it's really like gambling, especially if you trade with meme tokens or invest in coins that you have no idea about and those that are ranked 1000th and higher on Coinmarketcap. Also, consider that absolutely every trading session automatically becomes gambling if you use leverage trading or open a short position on the futures market.
I suggest you to buy a coin, for example, Bitcoin and wait for months or years until it reaches a certain price point where you'll get the desired profit. If you do day trading, then you'll be gambling because you are not a whale, you are a fish in the ocean full of whales.
Investments are better for those just getting started, but day trading isn't like gambling if it's done with care and with enough knowledge and experience. As you mentioned yourself if you day trade in coins like meme coins or shit coins which usually work on pump-and-dump mechanisms and which are only there to earn profit for their creators. But, if you are trading in actual and useful cryptocurrencies that are present in the market, you wouldn't be gambling because you can get a good profit if you time your trades well.
What does one need to time their trades well? Knowledge, of course, and a little bit of trading experience as well but knowledge is the fundamental requirement for it because you need to know the market, you should know how to read charts and candles, you should know how to utilize technical analysis and make your trades according to the market trends.
Can you do all that in gambling? No, you can't.