Most paleoanthropology and studies of early agrarian societies doesn’t really agree with that as a blanket statement. Time spent improving living conditions, on leisure, and on fancy goods begins pretty early in human settlement anywhere. Even non-sedentary people’s spend a lot of time on unnecessary frivolities like beads which confer status. That’s why people populate particular areas and eat particular foods.
What does happen though is that at times of stress working all the time isn’t enough to get enough to eat or drink. They can’t magic it up. And they die or move on. But stable populations of people had significant leisure time.
Needless to say I’m not suggesting societal collapse is a stable situation. Our agriculture is incapable of surviving the loss of diesel. Our agriculture is not based on feeding people without huge transport and processing infrastructure. Most people don’t have the option of growing food in quantities to feed themselves even if they were capable of it.
If these guys have dehydrated glop in slop buckets and a secure well I guess they could survive a winter before their chronic piles killed them off one by one. What a life to aim for!
