If you want to farm reasonable airdrops I suggest that you stick to testnets, they might take time but your efforts won't be wasted.
I simply don't understand this part of your post. Why should someone farm testnet if he isn't a developer or something? Testnet is just a separate Blockchain for testing a new project. Or is there any other meaning to it I don't know of? Those telegram airdrops were fun while it lasted. A lot of persons made some really good amount of money just by taping or playing those games. There are still a couple of them but there aren't worth wasting your time on. Like you said, the best way to making money in crypto is by trading and holding. So I agree with that.
I’m also waiting for a response as to what other value testnets have, because to the best of my knowledge, they’re solely for testing purposes and I think it can easily be gotten if I’m not wrong.
I earned from Dogs and the rest projects were a total mess maybe to me 😢
Personally I wouldn’t advise anyone especially a newbie who’s trying to figure a path in cryptocurrency to ever try airdrops because with my few experience on airdrops especially the telegram mini apps, I think it’s a total waste of time .
There are several other options to earn something tangible from crypto but not airdrops and even if you have hopes of airdrops, I wouldn’t recommend the telegram mini app airdrops except you’re ready to always get unhappy