it’s very common for people to jump into trying to make money from photography before they really are qualified for it. I don’t personally think there’s integrity in taking peoples’ money as your training opportunity rather than when you’re actually ready.

I would tend to agree with this. The issue is that I also see a lot of criticism of new photographers when they work for free or very little - it seems like a big no-no in the eyes of many professional photographers. Which makes it feel like a lose-lose for new photographers, where they’ll be criticized no matter what they do.