At the risk of repeating what's been said, here's my story:
About 10 years ago, I did magic for mainly kids at McDonald's. It's not like I sought out the gig -- I was a shift manager at the time; the owners knew I was good with kids, so they gave me some magic card tricks from Wal-Mart and told me to have fun. They gave me a bunch of gaff cards, a stripper deck and a marked deck. Because I love cards, I took to them, learned the tricks and did some decent performances.
About seven years later, my card collection took in its first Black Viper deck from a Tower Records in Nashville. The promo card tells me about Ellusionist; I go to the site and I'm blown away. Ever since then, I've been learning serious sleight of hand and have fallen in love with magic. It's a world that I knew existed, but never really took seriously until just a few years ago.
When I compare my performances now (10 to 20 percent gaffed) to what I did at McD's (100 percent gaffed), I feel like I accomplish more. There's a greater sense of satisfaction when I perform an ACR, as opposed to my stripper deck routine. I didn't really enjoy the routines I did at McDonald's, because it didn't feel like magic. I was just following simple instructions intended for children. Once I started things that required dexterity, magic's allure enveloped me.
I said all that to say this: I can see why many magicians would want to be purists, where their effects are accomplished based purely on their skill and misdirection. To me, it's like drumming: Every drummer would love to play like Danny Carey, Mike Portnoy or Saint Neal Peart, blessings be upon his polyrhythmic name. But you don't have to play like them to play good music.
Purism holds a great allure for me, but I don't claim to be a purist. The techniques I learn in pursuit of purism benefit my gaff magic. And gaffed tricks are now some of my favorite to perform. In a way, I'm paying tribute to the part of me that truly started my magical journey.