The Gygaxian pronouncements from on high were all I had to go by, and they gave me rather the impression that EGG was a pompous ass. He did not do his personal image any favors with some of them.
It is only now, as I get to know some of the people who knew him in person and gamed with him, that I see a different side of him.
The influx of serious money and the day to day differences over what direction TSR should take obviously has an influence on Gygax. People, including folks like Rob Kuntz, tend to latch on that especially given his behavior when he was in California. That the "good" Gary of the OD&D was corrupted by corporate greed into corporate Gary.
Now that I read several books and read extensive antedotes including ones by Gygax himself. Along with my experience in the world of small to medium sized family owned corporations (machinery for me). My opinion is more nuanced.
First off much of what was written in the voice of "corporate" Gary was written AFTER the release of AD&D. Starting Around 1980ish. That includes the fights and argument with the Blumes over the direction TSR was going and the whole experience in Southern California.
There is a whole time period between the release of OD&D in 1974 to the release of the Monster Manual in 1977 that Gygax was the creative force and everybody was preoccupied with the growth of TSR. You read stories from that time period to me there very little of the corporate in-fighting or concern over money that occurred later. Everybody appeared to be in a creative fever and pre-occupied on getting some reins on the D&D fad that was exploding all around them.
That the whole Rules are written in stone attitude projected in the first three AD&D and the few handful of Dragon Magazine articles about AD&D (#10 to #30). is a result of the experience of those three years. The overwhelming barrage of questions, comments, and complaints by the fans of OD&D. I was struck by how similar the reaction of the people involved are to those that are involved when a internet forum, blog, or company explodes in popularity. AD&D was written as a reaction to the "spam" that TSR was getting from their fans.
Part of it was noble and a good idea (a better organized and easier to learn version of D&D). Other parts were an overreaction (the rules are official and the only official way to play AD&D is by the letter of the rules).