>Replaced crypto with stocks, how does it read now?

It reads like a false equivalence.

I do own stocks in companies such as Woolworths (retailer), BHP (mining company) and Westpac (banking company). The fact that they produce goods or services that they can sell at a profit was a huge decision in my decision to invest (and a big reason why I didn't invest in crypto).

I don't have data, but I suspect this is how most stockholders think. They accumulate shares over their lifetime and rely on the dividends to pay for their lifestyle during retirement.

Yes, Wall Street Bets exists, but the average person with stocks is not a day trader leveraging themselves up to their eyeballs to gamble on some crazy contracts.