Why do so many people view "retirement" as sitting on your ass doing nothing? It is a weird cultural stereotype, perhaps perpetuated to glorify work culture.

This is probably why the term "financial independence" was coined, to break away from this misconception.

Retirement/financial independence is not needing the paycheck anymore. It's owning all of your time to use how you want.

There are plenty of "retired" people that don't sit around on their ass all day. They've retired from the full time rat race but are very much active, doing what they want to do. It might even still sometimes look like "work", but it is on their terms.