Mm. Well, in their case, it's less about being preoccupied with the present, and more as you saw in my memory—Visnu believes only in reaching for what he considers to be the single "best" future for the world.

And because the other gods naively believe Visnu's insight and judgment to be infallible, they all work towards that future.

[but for chandra, who would almost always choose to sacrifice the minority for the majority, letting so many worlds die just for the one is unacceptable to him.]