I haven't been following crypto for a while, but I thought that there weren't really any cryptocurrencies that were profitable to mine anymore. Has something changed, or did I miss something?
Some people also don't do math well, or fall for sunk cost motivations. For example, they've already spent a bunch of money on equipment. I know someone who justified it to himself by claiming that the heat output in his house during the Winter reduced his heating bill, so the losses weren't as bad.
The ASIC based setups mining bitcoin are still profitable.