Yeah, I also never liked that kind of advice. For me personally just doing something that roughly seems somewhat interesting was usually enough - if you get good at something, the motivation can often follow.
If I had spent more time thinking about what my passion is in life then I'd probably still sit there pondering without an idea of what to do.
I agree that there is value in trying things for the sake of trying. I would argue that working on something you are passionate and excited about is much more important than working on things that are necessarily the "right" direction.
I think the idea was to actively consider whether you are working on the right things, rather than suggesting inaction.
How can one say this? How can you know without action? You can spend your entire life thinking about what to work on. Ultimately, you have to do something. There's a saying... 失败是成功之母 (failure is the mother of success).