Since the thread got bumped I'll throw in my 2 cents (and a probably boring story) here too. I made a game and tried to "monetize" it. Asked a few friends here and there, seems like Flash is really easy. There's FGL, and loads of portals. There's APIs to integrate ads and sites you can ask for sponsorship on. So #6 (clearer path to monetization) is really what Flash is still much better at. Not sure when HTML5 will catch up.
So I thought I don't want to wait for HTML5 to catch up, I'll just port the game to Stencyl, should be pretty straightforward, there's not too much logic and all the sprites are done, so how long can it take, really?
Went in and downloaded the 2.0, after reading about it and all the cool things it has over 1.0 (it does sound VERY promising). But I couldn't make much progress with it because there's no tutorial yet for 2.0, you have to know 1.0 as the concepts are the same, then get to 2.0 and you pick it up. So I download 1.0 and shoot the first crash course tutorial. To make an actor move, you have to "code" it, i.e. you have to tell it when W is pressed move up, when S is pressed move down, when they are released, Stop. And I'm thinking "8 direction...". The interface with the puzzle blocks seems clumsy to me too, but I'm sure I could get used to it in a couple days.
Apparently the 2.0 has built in behaviors so you don't need to code movement and such. I decided to wait for that (should be released soon, like in a couple weeks or so) and give it one more go then.
Their forums are active enough, I asked a couple questions and got pretty quick responses.
But at the end of the day, after playing with Stencyl (both 1 and 2) for a few hours: I find C2's interface way easier and more intuitive. Grouping, event sheets, property sheet - everything is familiar to me (sounds like #regions, code files, property sheets from Visual Studio). It's also faster. I find C2 superior, but for this monetization aspect which to me becomes more and more important. I know things will improve, but I don't think it will be in the near future.
Cheers!