I agree with the concept of not playing negative counts and base my existance on it , but this statement makes no sense.
If you have no money resting on the outcome, then you have not played the hand. I can't support myself by betting 0.
Also want to state that walking doesn't have to mean less hands per hour. It probably does in small locations with limited tables and that may be the case with mountaineer park where the OP plays, I really am not familiar, but in the bigger casinos in Vegas, AC, Foxwoods, you can switch tables, even pits and be playing hands within a minute, so you really don't lose hands per hour. You just switch negative hands for positive or at worse neutral count hands.