As you said a lone dev (or small group) could create Bitcoin, without any financial reward, except their early knowledge and therefore investment advantage over others.

ICOs are not a good development, because now we see devs getting the money ahead of time, and having the early investment opportunity. Also the concepts of fair coin distribution are being thrown away, if you miss an ICO or cant get subscribed before the time limit, you are frozen out as the post ICO hysteria forces you to buy in at inflated rates.

With the standard coin issues of the Bitcoin era, you usually had months/years to become aware, research, see if the devs were really progressing towards a working model, then buy in, still at a low rate.