When You Sell Out, People Give You Money

I've always had a problem with people using the phrase "selling out" when referring to a now-former artistic idol of theirs doing something they think is beneath, or otherwise unbefitting, their idol's value/values/morals/dignity/insert-your-preferred-sanctimony-here.
First, despite how big of a fan you are of an artist, you don't know them. This is true of every citizen-celebrity relationship out there. This isn't a bad thing, either. Most of my adult life, I've been aware of a saying "Familiarity breeds contempt". I don't necessarily endorse that 100%, but I've seen evidence of it. I think most of us these days could cite a marriage or two that demonstrates it pretty aptly. Anyway, people have secrets, and people have things they don't share with the wider public (but Facebook's ever-changing default privacy settings may whittle away at that more and more as time moves on). I know I do. Maybe you believe you don't hide anything about yourself, and more power to you for it, but I definitely prefer to keep an air of mystery about me.
Second, what you think an artist's values/ethics/whatever are are none of their business or mine, and neither is your opinion of the value/merit of the offending project. Just because you think their latest commercial venture doesn't match up with what you think they would do or doesn't reflect their style or quality or mantra or sofa butt print doesn't mean jack.
Third, and the meat of my point of view, most artists who make a living from their art are trying to do just that - make a living. They've got a nut to make just like any non-artist, grown-up, contributing member of society. If the market decides their material is worth giving them money for their work, that it has consumer value, a self-important fan does not get to tell the artist they can't capitalize on that value. You can have an opinion on the art's value, there's nothing wrong with that. It would be impossible to tell someone they couldn't have an opinion about something. Just understand that your opinion has no power to change the value, validity, or legitimacy of a piece of art or whether something an artist creates is or isn't art. Art critics (the ones that make a living as such) can all go away, as far as I'm concerned. If an artist chose to create art that is different from something they've done before, and the new stuff is somehow more appealing to a buying audience, that shouldn't be enough on its to make something less artistic. Commercial value is as subjective as art itself - they are independent of one another.
Now, to step down from the lofty top of my soapbox and un-don my hypocritcally pompous cloak of self-righteousness... This started out with the intention of sarcastically advising my non-existent audience that I went ahead and signed up for Google's AdSense service in case enough people look at my stupid ramblings that it's worth something to somebody, then maybe I can get a little piece of the action. Who knows? Maybe I'll get enough money to buy a gumball; then I can treat myself. After all, I'm worth it. I'd say that's my two cents, but I'm afraid that would spend all the still-as-yet non-existent ad money before it's even arrived.
Don't call me a sell-out - I've always been in it for the money. P-)