Not that you are wrong. Some poeple can select many matches and winning huge amount of money when some of the matches are not yet played. That is what you are talking about. Some people are tempted to cashout and cashout instead of waiting for the other matches to begin and end.
Your own strategy is good and I actually do stake up $10 or at least $5 if it's on a single game with a small odd, but sometimes too, in a parlay I can risk up to $10 and the games selected could be more than ten with different odds. I know that gambling is a game of luck but before I stake in such accumulator, I usually take my time to do the prediction and I only add the game that I feel so sure that it's supposed to be successful if the team doesn't fuck up. I use such strategy so that the cashout can be a bit meaningful amount .
In general, I have never liked odds below 1 and I prefer to take more risk. But at the same time, I see how even more players bet on small odds to win at least something, but with a higher probability. But sometimes later I see threads in which a player complains that he lost with odds of 1.1