I agree with you, OP. Following these guidelines is essential for becoming a smart gambler:
1. Have a side hustle that earns you money weekly or monthly.
2. Only risk what you can afford to lose.
3. Lower your expectations regarding gambling outcomes.
4. Remember that success in gambling is unlikely; the odds are 1% success to 99% failure.
If you truly want peace of mind, don’t rely on gambling as your sole source of income. Consider getting a job or starting a business. Enjoy gambling as a source of entertainment rather than as a way to make money.
I think number is something that a lot of gamblers that are still at the Intermediate phase won't believe until they have had one or two experiences. At some point we've all had that delusional thought of becoming financially independent with gambling. If a strategy we came up with fails we move straight into another one, hoping that we'd get it right but just like you said gambling can never be a source of income. Even those with jobs that are earning still put in their hard earned money into gambling, it's a losing game.
Gambling attached with the labels of making money and financial independence are actually toxic paranoid symptoms, it is like a poisonous gas and slowly seeps into the brain, until a person is overwhelmed by this invasion, the gambler has no more cure and society will have ways to reject and send these people to a rehabilitation center. And even if they are returned to a more suitable place, the roots of gambling are still there to some extent, just let them think more about many strategies, the desire to suppress gambling will return and they start to become more serious diseases.