It can be worth it for enthusiasts who have the capital and time required, yes. And the expertise.
It all comes down to locating equipment, bulk buying cheaply to set up, electricity costs (very important) and how much hash power you can deliver.
Mining varies over time, with difficulty going up and prices fluctuating. There is still confidence though and Bitcoin and forks have been around for years. They won't go away, there's a lot of skin in the game. Eventually, in my opinion, we will start to make a move from debit and credit cards to crypto on our phones. New proofs-of-work and staking will make it possible to mine and stake at an interest rate on your mobile phone.
That aside, the basics are considering how long you are willing to wait for your initial return on investment. It has risk like anything else. Cost of equipment and running it with expected returns over X months but more likely years unless you have millions to burn. But if you can generate a good and reliable cashflow and your electricity prices and other costs are less than what the miners generate, you're in a reasonable position to get started and wait for your ROI, and grow the business.
Some interesting developments are coming soon. Miners are going bust because of high difficulty making it difficult to get shares in block rewards or finding blocks, although if enough of them go out of business the difficulty might adjust downward. There's a "block halving" event next year with Bitcoin and forks, meaning block rewards of 6.25 BTC/Bxx plus fees. The competition will certainly be fierce, I think.
That's my view, I've been around in this space for as long as anyone else has, since just after Bitcoin was released. I wouldn't take investor and other business type advice too seriously; even the best journalists and other advisers with backgrounds in stock markets etc, write with good faith but are very often mistaken in crucial areas. There is a lot to wrap your head around if you have no technical background. Not only that, but with anything else that has a comparatively high risk, you need to be a true believer and make it happen. Sitting around and hoping for the best isn't a good strategy
