I saw these people too. Some times I used to pre-sort my garbage so they could easily pick up the stuff they wanted -cardboard and containers from the building dumpster.
An observation was that they seemed dedicated and hard working. It kind of changed my way of looking at how people deal with limited opportunities. In TW destitute people are just hard working. I was very impressed by that. They find something to do --just something. I didn't see alcohol or drug abuse. I didn't see resentment toward people who were better off.
It seemed like a more practical approach without psychological overlays. I don't think it was accepted as fate, rather it seemed like a calculus of "this is what I can do, it's hard, but I can eke out a living without depending on someone/something"
Beside that, it was kind of weird coming up on them in the middle of the night pushing their carts in the middle of traffic. That part seemed really dangerous.
When I came back to the States, this experience skewed my view of how I perceive people at the fringes in the US who seem more likely to give up on their circumstance. It just seems more self-destructive without having to be.