I don't begrudge people who are in it for the art, or for the love of the game. Some of them are naive, sure. But plenty others make that choice intentionally. For reasons of game design, or reasons of personal ethics. And good for them.

I have several very close friends who graduated cum laude from fantastic schools and chose to become high school teachers instead of lawyers or bankers. Should I begrudge them that choice, as well?

That money will fundamentally change the nature of your products. Others will have different thoughts, but I didn't get into the business to run shady F2P pseudo-casinos. (And it looks like neither did the op.)

Being cool is a big selling point. IAP and Ads are not 'cool' for users or reviewers.

Maybe this success needed a the lack of Cruft and Crud.