Dr. Mike and Greg doucette cover this on YouTube. It is all about glycogen depletion. Cardio is only negative when it affects muscle recovery. I can’t do squats or deadlifts then go MTB for 2 hours and expect muscle growth. They will need to recover and I just killed all the glycogen and nutrients used for growth doing cardio. Definitely a trade off.
I totally agree with you. I am not getting on stage. I want to enjoy my family. My cardio comes in when I can enjoy them.