Yes, passive income businesses didn't fail because operators stopped caring. They failed because the markets were structurally broken.

Dropshipping, affiliate SEO, print-on-demand... these face the same margin compression regardless of how engaged you are. Ad cost inflation, platform saturation, algorithmic displacement, etc... it doesn't matter whether the operator is engaged or not.

Caring's a moat only where differentiation is possible. In commoditized markets, it doesn't move the needle.