> I mean, what's the point of long term held assets then?

Mainly as a hobby project, as far as I can tell. The overwhelming majority of categories of "long term investment" are either completely mathematically impossible to deliver on the promises (this is where most of the crypto investors are), or have already proven themselves to be complete crapshoots where you either win big or lose big (this is where the people "investing" in things like beanie babies and trading cards are).

There's no investment that can gain value indefinitely. There's some that will probably gain reasonably steady value for the length of your or my lifespan, but they're few and far between, and usually rely on active management, government backing, or both.

> Most people don't do anything with index funds either

It's rather the point of an index fund that those are actively managed. You don't just type "i want to invest" into your Compaq Presario, turn the computer off, and come back twenty years later expecting to have double the money.

Clearly, and if you had read a line or two down you’d have seen where I say they aren’t quite the same, and you entirely missed my point which is that people see them similarly as just another part of their portfolio.

And actually with most index funds I don’t even have to type, I just click a few buttons. They’re not managed by the end user.

It’s generally recommended to review your finances at least once a year, even if they are long-term investments in index funds. That helps people maintain the access and records they will need to benefit from their wealth someday.

If crypto on a hard drive is a significant part of your finances, an annual check on it for access or corruption seems reasonable to expect.

I check something like every few hours, but many people do not even though I generally agree with you.