If a coin is great, the dev should invest in it himself or gather the funds/backers outside of the coin's supply imo.
But then people end up categorizing him a scammer anyways because of premine/dev funds. It is a bit of a lose/lose situation.
However, I understand that most people can't work full-time for years on an idea which might at some point give them a decent return.
This is the main reason that I don't mind ICOs and premines. People need to be compensated for their time and effort. Otherwise, it would be a better idea to simply get a job. ICOs push blockchain technology forward at a more advanced rate by allowing developers to focus on development. We have seen some really neat things come from ICOs... Ethereum, Bitshares, Nxt, Waves, etc... all of which are innovative in their own ways.
Other models, such as Zcashs developer shares are just as disliked by the community, but at least those give the developers incentive to keep the market value of their product high.
You also touched on another important thing is that there is no "best" way to fund development. Someone will always complain. Even with PoW distributed coins... if the coin becomes big enough, people will eventually complain about centralized ASIC mining due to economies of scale. It is a lose/lose proposition. At the end of the day, no matter how a coin was released or distributed, it matters more that they deliver on their vision.
