how would you fill your days?
I mean if it was somehow magically decided for you that would could only consume and not produce and thusly freed of the pressure to leave a mark on this world outside of the good deeds you did and the conversations you had. Do you think you’d be happier and an overall better human being?
I suppose we would all be a bit closer to life absent of clinging…but observation is an art too even if your mind is the only record.
I don’t know if less clinging would make one closer to life.
Maybe closer to some unobtainable (for most of us at least) buddhist abstraction. 
I often kid myself that I’ll retire early and it’ll magically free up time which will allow me to suddenly become more productive again. Then I get my head out the clouds and realise with free time will just come more hours wasted on something like Elden Ring.
In short, I need a mindset change and I’m fucked if I know how to pull it off!
Yes, it’s part of the Buddhist’s Artist Relocation Program…
Sounds like hell to me. Doing nothing but consuming would be unbearable.
I would be miserable. No doubt about that.
What if Tibetan sound painting is allowed?
Well, in that case I don’t see why not.
Although the observer effect might screw the non-involvement somehow, maybe?
Unsure I’d be able to not collapse the wave function and all.
Well, all observers are not only required to sit in silence but to also put their fingers in their ears which in my case would probably be for their own good sonically.
There is actually a term for such a person from hundreds of years ago
A Flaneur.
a man who saunters around observing society.
Oh yes, I loved that word when I first learned of it but by today’s standards you’d be called a lazy bum. Austerlitz is a great flaneur novel but not written by a true flaneur no doubt…he didn’t respect the oath of the flaneur when he put pen to page. That is the conundrum…it’s a bit like that Cat Steven’s song:
Truth is, there are loads of folks who consume and don’t create, and not entirely in some negative way. They work, they love bands, collect albums, go to shows, art openings, book launches, talks and theatre shows. Punters and fans through and through. Not everyone can be a musician or artist, nor wants to be. And this is the bulk of people who make up real fan bases, too. Me personally, sometimes I live in this world. There’s nothing wrong with just being someone who appreciates art, ‘consume’ maybe has a bit of an empty connotation to it. There’s no reason why viewership can’t be participatory and involved, dedicated and focused. For me I often just get lost in other peoples music for months or even years. It’s enough - the world doesn’t need any more and it’s enough just to enjoy. But cultural contribution can add to a greater sense of self and community. Sometimes, I think after enough consumption a switch is flipped, the mind processes it all and offers up a unique offering that could only be presented by you. But I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with just being a fan.
Observing?
I guess the modern term for a flaneur would be loser.
True. But to be a true flaneur you must look the part. Dressed as a Dandy.
I’m not arguing that either way of existing is wrong per se but if the impulse to create leads to unhappiness in many who can’t turn away from. Although, from what I’ve read many artists have said that they were the closest to feeling happy when in the flow state but these were also people who are respected in their fields but I am also not implying that people who achieve flow but are not putting their work out there, or whatever, don’t find the same level of happiness in the moment of creation. Perhaps, it has more to do with how a person feels or lives their life when they aren’t in the process of creating, and I know some people who keep busy doing just about anything so they aren’t sitting listening to their thoughts.
Ok, if I may ask you to break from the exercise of being just an observer: please tell me what you saw and where you saw it and how you felt about it…
I agree there is something of an artists curse in that way. That kind of despair needs to be managed. For those that don’t have it ignorance is bliss I suppose.
I would definitely live next to Philosphers Path in Kyoto and walk up and down it all day enjoying the seasons changing, the endless ever changing stream of faces visiting from far and away. And I would stop and sip matcha cappuccinos and look at the leaves and ducks and listen to piano music. 
Call me a flâneur, but I’ll flân the fuck out of that place.
I have to point out that the concept of a flâneur, at least as articulated by Walter Benjamin, is considerably more nuanced. I have used the term “flânerie” for my own academic mini-textbooks (including one on modular synthesis). Also, I would say that most people are mostly observers in the OP’s sense, whether they think of themselves that way or not.