This so annoying for an airdrop participants to put all their hope on a project that promised to reward their community handsomely but later change mind and did the opposite. This was not something that everyone wants to see or expected and it's a good reason why we need to take note about the dishonest project team like the one of Hamster Kombert.
People wasted their time and resources to participate in the airdrop but the community ends up regretting why they ever participated in the project. That was the beginning of the downfall of many airdrops and that made people to see airdrops as scam.
Before that(airdrop seen as a scam by people), people had already lost hope in airdrops a long time ago after 2017. Telegram mining brought back people's hope on airdrops that they began to think highly of it for a payout. After the months of active participation and involvement, what was paid out as a reward made me realize that airdrops are still a waste of time. Nothing has changed from it, to make it interesting for people to keep partaking in it.
I don't think people lost hope on airdrop after 2017 because their was still good airdrops and bounties during that till till 2023 before everything turn to scam. Airdrops was paying then and people made money from it but until Telegram airdrops started surfacing that made more people to be aware about airdrops and that was the beginning of the delimma of airdrop participants as a result of bad project teams trying to be greedy so they can themselves make money from the community while the community struggles to get something tangible as rewards.