Just using common sense. A house comes with a carrying cost of 1-2% property taxes and 1-2% maintenance. So if you own your house outright it needs to appreciate 2-4% per year just for you to break even. There are very few zip codes where a house worth $1,000,000 can be rented out for more than $40k/yr. So it is almost impossible to generate income by renting a house that you own outright. And very few people ever own a house outright. If you have an outstanding mortgage then you simply cannot rent a profit.
If you have $1,000,00 you can put it in the stock market and get a return of $120,000/yr. With that income you can rent a million-dollar house for $30k/yr and reinvest the other $90k/yr.