I do not think the hype on airdrop is as strong as it used to be. Project launches these days are just being careful to not run at a loss because if they do, they would have nothing to hold onto, so they treat with caution. No airdrop pays as well as it used to because they hardly generate revenue, as you have said, so it would be in their best interest to reserve the little they have by giving penuts to airdrop participants just to compensate them for a job done.
I personally think that airdrop projects, especially Telegram airdrops, regardless of whether they are hyped or not, they are never a good choice in the long-term.
And if anyone wants to see the reasons and examples, they can understand by verifying the current price and position of some coins that came from years of airdrop hype. In fact, I think that to select a good project, we need to look at the uniqueness of that project and whether it will actually be good for the future. It is better not to keep projects on our list that do not bring any good updates periodically.