Splinterlands is unfriendly to players who doesn't pay more than $10 to start, moreso now than before. It's rather different from the more mainstream gamefi out there at the moment, so what you learnt there in terms of the pace and method might be different from other games. My personal suggestion is to dabble into more than one gamefi just to broaden your view on the whole landscape.

Also, rental is negative ROI in the current landscape. I wouldn't suggest you to do it unless you find other gains than money on those rentals. I was a veteran in Splinterlands and their former rental was very cheap because it takes time and work to rent all the cards. I profit hard as a full-level rental (like I rent everything at silver level for like just $0.36 a day) and tournament grinder. That strategy didn't work for me no more after they upgraded their rental into v2 and everything gets easy. It's been negative ROI for me since then and the total cost to rent things just skyrocketed, so I didn't rent anymore. Just grind what you can everyday with what you have, asset acquisition (daily quest) and holding is the way to play Splinterlands long term. It's not a game for the impatient and I think you have the right mindset for it.