as HH is your only 'game' you play, I can understand that you have a different understanding on how games in general work. this game is a idle game hence the only scale we can use on how 'hardcore' someone is, is to measure effective time use as there is absolutely no point in any activity in the downtime (as it gains no benefits for being online) - which means if you cover 18-20h of a day (your 17 logins are basically 19h worth of effective time spend) you are pretty hardcore for an idle game
compared to other idle games: hardcore players are the ones that get up at night on log in as soon as their stuff is off cooldown (energy/money/upgrades/army/whatever)
this is the equivalent of grinding XP/Currency in MMOs
casual gamers log in once MAYBE twice a day and thats it, sometimes they just dont play for a couple of days
this is the major point why a lot of people, including me, called you out - just different termonology/understanding. thats why your 20min statement, for me, is pretty misleading - I log in for a couple times each day, hence my claim to be one of the more active players, but you are WAY more active then I am. it does not matter how much time I spend each time I log it as, to stress it again, one cant do anything while your energy/money is on cooldown
now my 2 cents regarding trolls vs ToF - trolls literally only give you money. sure you can use it to upgrade your girls, but if you do the math it is a SUPER long time investment and even for 3 star girls it takes month - for 5 stars YEARS - to get back that money. Hence there is no point in going for money over XP as it will result in an effective money loss for the near future. given that there is nothing else to do with money, it is pretty obvious that it still is the best use for it if you have enough to get through the sporadicly implemented quests
especially with the upcomming changes to PvP there might be an actual point in levels as higher level means more stats (given that stat upgrades are limited in the shop), higher girl level and the possibility of higher level gear - sure we do not know what they are planning, but it should be somewhat save to assume that levels will benefit you
disclaimer: personal opinion and I understand why some people would go for trolls to accumulate money/'complete' their harem upgrades
why exactly would you ever go for rainbow items after ~50? everything outside your main stat is useless, crit is useless as you are capped and health does not outscale the immense stat loss from single-stat epics/legendaries. rainbow items would only make sense if they somehow make other stats matter much more with the PvP update and if you use level 55 stuff, I am pretty certain that the little stats they offer dont give you much either.
the only reason to still use the HH2.0 set is that 1. you literally didnt get any other epic+ gear for that slot since hh2.0 was introduced or 2. you see it as a waste of money as more stats do not really offer you much given that trolls and ToF are pretty much free anyway