Why the Thief wasn’t as “blessed” as you thought

The thief on the cross had nothing to offer God, yet Christ saved Him at his last moments because of His faith. The simplicity of the gospel is genuinely demonstrated. But the thief has also often been brought up as the role model for living a Christian life of “mere belief” without deep commitment towards the faith. Did Christ die for us to live as the thief, only to realize the mistake on our deathbed? In reality, it actually seems as though the thief was one of the worst examples to follow, while Christ’s life of radical fruit remains the only role model worth looking to.