Er... no. That's not it at all. I'm baffled how you could have read that into the quote.

The point is that World of Warcraft was taking all the time & energy that could have went into improving her life, and that she besides not on any sort of growth trajectory, may well have been getting worse - that she wasn't investing even the minimum necessary to keep her life (such as it was) viable.

Err, no.

According to my worldview, it is preferable because it is real.