hmm, I just realized that this confession that I deliberately use a strategy that inefficiently uses in-game currency... kinda conflicts with my previous claim that I always play to win.

This can be a manifestation of a lost purpose. Money / one-use items are useful to accumulate for the purposes of beating the game (or your opponent) but focusing on maximizing them is to lose sight of your goal (winning the game).

And my strategy does work well enough for me actually win often enough, so maybe I'm being too critical...

It's not clear to me whether you are primarily talking about single player games or not but I have generally found competitive multiplayer much more effective than single player for encouraging winning strategies and punishing losing strategies. Good human opponents often also devise creative strategies which can be educational in themselves.