This is, ah, a pretty bold claim.
I don't see it as a bold claim really at all. If it doesn't change your behavior for the better, it is useless.
If it's useless, why do people keep logging back in?
Addiction and the feeling that they are getting something out of it. When you are training, you could watch a lot of training videos, but unless you get off your ass, you aren't going to get better.
They log in precisely because they feel connected. They have friends and family on those platforms, they have people posting about stuff they care about.
Are you spending your time there? A lot of people are complaining because they don't see their family and friends unless they go there directly (like here), otherwise they get pushed content and adverts. I don't know much about TikTok, but it is a lot of random trash that doesn't help anyone. If you want to look at harmful content, look at most of the "influencers" pushing paid products.
I don't think there is a problem seeing Hive as for making money - but people could consider how that money can be made. It doesn't have to only be through content - ownership can work too - and better. It is like a business, isn't it?
People would rather be an employee.
It's not the feeling that they're getting something out of browsing social media, they are actually getting something out of it. People are checking social media all day long because that's where the latest news is breaking, as well as the most up to date opinions and jokes.
People who post a lot might be addicted to the dopamine rush of likes or whatever, but the vast majority of social media users are people browsing, not posting. They browse because they get something out of it... and people post because that's where the eyeballs are.
Fundamentally that's the problem with Hive... until there are some creators posting content exclusively to Hive that the general public is interested in, the content will always be better on the centralized sites.
There's no problem with seeing Hive as a means to make money at all... the problem I see is that if people ONLY post what they think will get upvotes then it becomes a silo very quickly... especially when a lot of upvoted content is misinformation.