a good way to think of dividend investing is if you are investing small bits over 5-10 years assuming its an etf or something with many companies in it, it will go up over that lifetime because you are insulated somewhat from volitility if its a big enough etf. Yes it still goes down, but its irrelevant, only changes in the dividend are significant, which is why people tend to pick champion stocks with extremely stable dividends.
You probably hear about dividends hitting 6-15% and while that sounds awesome its because the company is having issues and will likely drop it or suspend it.
The real money is that the stocks do become more valuable (higher price) over time and your small buy ins weekly moderate any losses, while your dividends help bump up your share count too, resulting in more and more. This is a slow process but it can work if you got like 30-50 years to retirement.
I wasn't able to keep working after 30 years due to health issues but I still made it to the point where dividends is around 7k per year on its own, combined with the stock just naturally going up it really helps. Someone who started dividends immediately at 16 will end up with millions of dollars at retirement even if they only made like 25k a year.
You do miss out on instant gains but you don't have to worry about instant losses either.