OP FWIW I've watched scam sites come and go. There are sites which don't fit the scam mold IMO. BTC-e, Blockchain.info, and MtGox don't fit. At the end of the day it's up to the operator(s) of the site to not cheat their clients, because there is no regulation other than what the free market itself provides.

BTC-e was hacked early on (at least that's the story we were told) and had many coins stolen. This happened to many sites, but BTC-e was one of the few that replaced the lost coins out of their own profits. They seemed to be looking longer term. This was long before they were as popular as they are now. They couldn't have been making much at the time. I've also watched their site go offline without warning from DDoS etc., a classic start to a site disappearing with coins, but they come back. They are now the biggest exchange site for mixed bitcoin/alt-coin trading, moving hundreds of thousands of dollars daily. They are clearly profiting well now. It would hurt their exchange profits to lose customers over trust issues.

Am I saying people should give them full trust? Heck no. I don't say that about any exchange. Any site can pack up at anytime and disappear. That's why I've always said never keep more coins than you can afford to lose in any online service for the longer term. However, you can look at track record to get an idea of how much trust a service might receive. Same thing applies to Gox and Blockchain.info.