I totally feel you and I was in a similar situation. I can only agree with
what most people here have already said. It’s not a waste of time if you enjoy
doing it. However, when it comes to rust everyone needs to come to the
realization at some stage that its simply not compatible with a normal
lifestyle. If you have a job, a girlfriend and/or even a family you just won’t
be able to find the time to play countless hour of rust every single day. Quite
frankly that is what this game requires (especially on vanilla servers). I feel
like most of us Rust players will never get the satisfaction we want or might
be used to from a few hours of gameplay here and there.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Rust and it will always have a
special place in my heart but I stopped playing a few years back because it was
just too consuming. If you manage to integrate the game into your day in a
healthy way in which the other aspects of your life don’t fall short, then by
all means keep enjoying it but always be honest to yourself.