Exactly. He was good at making winnable games. And he took advantage of the fat man movie character opportunity and exploited the hell out of it, as any respectable opportunistic hustler would do.
However, as with most full-time gamblers who play on their own cash, nobody really knows how much money is won or lost. From their mouths you only hear about the wins. Winners often exaggerate their winnings while losers downplay their losses.
I was a young fan of the Mosconi vs Fats matches, because I believed then that Fats was the real deal.
When I got older and started reading a bit, I learned it was all bs. Mosconi's beef with Fats stemmed from the fact that Fats established his own stardom by telling the world he was the best, so good there was a movie about him, so good nobody was safe with their cash, etc... And here was Mosconi, a proven world champion that needed no elaborate tales of glory to make people think he was something more than he really was. It's sad, imo, that in order to make a buck Mosconi had to participate in those televised matches with Fats.
But I gotta give Wanderone props for his love of action, for his love of the game, and for his ability to capitalize on an opportunity that brought him fame. Well, he was never really famous...it was the name "Minnesota Fats" that became famous, that fictional character portrayed by Gleason. When pool players think of Minnesota Fats they don't picture a gloating Rudolph Wanderone going around setting up games he can win, living out of a car or motorhome. They picture the suave and refined Jackie Gleason, living the "good life" of a gambler, just like in the movie.
I imagine by the late 1970's there were 100's of decent fat pool players kicking themselves in the ass for not seizing the opportunity to become the great Minnesota Fats.