Love this! This is absolutely right on point!
I've experienced this firsthand when writing for "Measuring My Cum". For those who don't know the game started based on a vanilla mom/son relationship. When I joined the project I wrote a completely new story keeping the basic elements the original story had. At some point I added some femdom elements because it fit the purpose of the story. It fit the characters, it fit the scenario, it was emotional for the player; it was perfect! And there were people that freaked out with that aspect! And they were so entitled with it and very vocal about it!
I had no intention of making the story femdom based, but I wanted to spread femdom element here and there where it fit the story. There was a lot of backlash with that (you know how people are), but in the end the majority of people liked it because it fit the story. The owner of the project was kind-of hesitant to keep adding femdom elements because he was worried about losing supporters because of that. In the end I respected that, but it was a limiting factor creatively. It was a case where the influence killed the creativity.
First of all, that is my approach as a creator too. Give the game for free; those that appreciate the work and have the right mindset will support it either way. For the rest; just enjoy. As a player, I love to give a try on a lot of games, find those few that I love, and support them. And all the while hoping that the devs are honest and transparent in their work.
I'll see what direction I'll take in the future with monetization, but I really think piracy helps to make a game more popular and reach a whole lot more eyes. It's like free advertisement IMO.
For that you need to have a clear idea of what you want to create, what's your vision, what story do you want to tell, and what's your end goal with the game. Do you just want to make sexy stuff? Do you want to make money? Do you want to tell a story?
I feel that most creators just start a game with a scene in their mind and don't have a clear vision of what they want to do with it. So they're easily influenced by money and the opinions of others. That's why you see a lot of games that are disjointed, with stories that make no sense, with characters that are not believable, or with scenes that come out of nowhere.
On the other hand, I'm not sure what kind of audience is out there. Seeing the few titles that are super popular, are mostly games with amazing visuals/animations but are lacking depth. That makes me think that people just want to see naughty scenes in typical fantasy scenarios. Even if the story is superficial, the games still get popular.