No, whether or not there is deduction or loss is not what makes it QBI. Passive income businesses such as a rental property can be a QBI business if it meets the requirements. See this link for more information about when a rental property qualifies for the QBI deduction.
When you have a business that qualifies for the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, your deduction is based on the income of the "QBI business". No QBI business income, no deduction. And, if you have a loss on your QBI business, that loss gets tracked and "carried forward" to be offset against next year's QBI business income when calculating that next year's QBI deduction.
This is true even if the losses were passive which is the case with your rental losses. Passive losses for a QBI business (from 2018 forward) will be tracked until the year the loss is included in taxable income.
The IRS instructions for reporting "Loss Netting and Carryforward" are in the instructions for Form 8995....
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