Your post lack humanity and nuance. Perhaps you’re jaded by your experiences which is fair but not representative.
Consistent access to sufficient money is life changing for people who grew up without. The change isn’t immediate. You don’t just suddenly adapt. You don’t unlearn the coping mechanisms you develop to survive while your poor. It takes time.
Poverty fucks you up.
The problem of poverty can come multiple ways. One way is lack of opportunity or being in a hole you can't get out of (kids and nobody to care for them, no home, nobody to look up to, mental illness, drug addiction, health problems). But there's also people that just aren't going to do their part to help themselves either. So what we need to do is help people get out of holes to get on their feet. There's a substantial portion of people that will take that money and do exactly what the OP said.