Not quite mutually exclusive, I'm afraid. It all depends on the endgame. If you believe the Ripple developers, then yes, they would be mutually exclusive. But as long as you can trade XRP for BTC, then it's also possible (with varying degrees of likelihood) to make money by defrauding the public with XRP.
Somewhat valid point, but the mitigating factor is the amount of resources that have gone into Ripple. They've developed the consensus protocol, the server and client software, and have I think 20 or more full time employees. They've also secured venture capital funding. It's hard to imagine that their intention at the outset was to defraud the public. A lot of the ideas behind Ripple are simply brilliant. If it's a scam then its practically indistinguishable from the real thing!
True. As I said, varying degrees of likelihood. In principle I would tend to agree with you that it wouldn't appear to be a scam. But don't forget that the XRP and BTC markets aren't static! What may appear to be low payout for the effort today may change very quickly if the BTC exchange rate were to suddenly grow at the same rate as it did between December and April.
Mostly, however, I'm willing to give Ripple the benefit of the doubt because of JoelKatz's involvement. As I said, over the years I've come to respect his ideas as expressed on this forum.
So, still a Ripple agnostic. But keeping an interested eye on it nonetheless.