i've been wondering the same for the last few years...
now, a lot of it has to do with who you play.... some game crowds are just uber-aggressive...
I know back in MK1, Warmachine players prided themselves on the Page 5 mentality...
it attracted some players, and drove off others... creating a community where no one saw a problem with "play for the win" since that's what the game advertised...
other games I've played since, haven't gone that route... with many being specifically designed where a tourney is terribly hard to organize since the standard gameplay isn't balanced (look at Flames of War for example)
the "problem" (IMO) hits when a game that seemed to advertise a "play for fun, not profit" mentality then realizes the kind of sales a tournament-based game gets, and tries to get in on that action...
then you get the casual players eventually clashing with the hard-core players...
the up side is, rules get streamlines darn quick to make up for the "tight" play of the tournament crowd...
the down side is, veteran players who were there for fun, walk away. (i've seen that happen with a number of games at my LGS... when we rolled casual, we had huge player bases... then when we tried to run a tourney, the player base diminished notably...)