I've written a nice tutorial about that: https://www.scirra.com/tutorials/969/the-key-to-game-development.
Very nicely written. I agree with the points you've raised... but I can't talk since I have no success in game development yet.
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You outline some good fundamental points. The key truly is to work hard and enjoy what we are doing. Even so, though, without some luck we wouldn't go anywhere...