I'm suspecting it is as pointless not passive, potentially... ultimately as pointless.

It depends on what you chose to create with your code. If you write code to fork people's notes, yes, you've wasted your time. If you write code that people use, then it's not pointless.

That doesn't seem like a good criteria. 🤔 People use all sorts of things which are pointless. People using something isn't a sign of it having a point.