Nope. Some folks start bad at, say, chess and stay bad, or will regress back down to 800 ELO. Perhaps they do not care, or their bad moves have become habitual,

Nope. Some folks start bad at, say, chess and stay bad, or will regress back down to 800 ELO. Perhaps they do not care, or their bad moves have become habitual, they are just playing to fill the time. Or maybe injury, pain, or mental health problems mean stagnation or decline. Maybe they are busy thinking about other things instead? That being said, the narrative of "up and to the right" for progress is a common mythology these days. Maybe that mythology needs questioning when something does not behave the way it "should".