Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's more than one definition of the term. I do agree that the definition and examples you are using are common. "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." - Wikipedia I would say that applies to making a profit off of property one owns by charging people to use it.
All passive investing is rent seeking under that interpretation of that sentence.
Just a quote from an article that sort of illustrates the attitude I have towards it:
> One disturbing implication of Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital, is that the American economy is slipping into a form of “rentier” capitalism, in which passive income from wealth, increasingly in the form of inherited fortunes, is supplanting dynamism, hard work and innovation. - https://qz.com/196575/to-get-rich-forget-entrepreneurship-an...
Apparently I'm not the only person with this attitude, although this poster was down-voted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13151809
There's also some links there. I do use passive investing, but I do consider it a kind of rent and I think society might be better off with less of it.