That is exactly my issue with Splinterlands, the almost certain drop in card values doesn't even come close to the earnings that compensate for that right now. At the same time, this expectation of actually making a profit can only be achieved by new players acting as exit liquidity. For as far as I know, every Play2Earn game suffers from this one way or another.

If there are crazy high returns (like Splinterlands in the past, Parallel now, Sorare some months back,... ) it helps to drive some adoption but they are simply never sustainable and always are followed by a collapse. If the returns are realistic and more long-term based they are not attractive and too risky for it to be a reason for players to start playing.

In the end, having a realistic stable economy and a game that is actually really fun, shareable/streamable is key along with a continued inflow of new players. All easier said than done.

It sure is a pain to be invested in the game right now, especially with the rental market totally dried up also which was one of the things I kind of counted on.