Ruined, no. The 80's version of the Turtles was rejected by a lot of fans of the original Mirage Studio's body of work. It was more or less as Superfriends was to the Justice League, a sugar coated hokey version of the franchise, that's not false. But understand what we're saying here. As far as the original work was concerned and it's fans, that wasn't actually a lot of people in the scheme of things, especially as it was not only an Indy comic in a time where independent comics hadn't gained the massive notoriety they have now, but also it was a mature rated book, one which most teens could not buy nor read of their own efforts from local comic book shops. The positives that the 80's cartoon, and the various attached endeavors, like the Konami video games for example, was to inflate the franchise to completely epic proportions making it a worldwide known entity, household name, and defining trait of an entire era of society. As well, for an Independent comic name to even make it half that far at the time was completely unheard of, and it can be believed that the Turtles franchise paved the way. So in question of whether it was a move that diminished the franchise, or expanded, it's easily the latter as it changed things so that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went from having a handful of fans and persons even aware of it's existence, to a worldwide audience, and preserved the Turtles franchise forever as far as we've seen to present date. Outside this, the original matter has never been shelved from publication, and equally mature versions still produced aside it (Image, IDW, the first live action considerably). Were it not for the 80's cartoon and the attached merchandizing explosion, the further effects on the franchise itself, from the films to Fox series would never have occurred, and it's highly likely Mirage Studio's itself wouldn't have remained in publication for as long as it did on it's own. Also, the effects outside of the genre would be missing, which means video games would be sans the stepping stones they have received from the franchise, the home version of the Turtles Arcade game for one example having been a specific chipset that advanced the way technology itself was presented. The action market would not have had the advances it did thanks to the Playmates production of vast and experimental related figurines, playsets and interactive merch. Culture would have been minus the Turtles cartoons influence, namely the spiked interest in X-sports and martial arts. And Independent comics would not have gained the kind of notice nor appreciation of value they did by the Turtles becoming such a monstrous thing. So it's a good with the bad scenario, the good grossly outweighing the bad, and transforming it into relating the subject matter to another audience, and by proxy drawing that new audience back to the original subject matter. Personally, I see it that everyone has their favorite version, the one closest to their heart, and preference is a cool thing that makes us unique and society interesting, and definitely a hollow reason for people to take arms against each other. As well in this specific case one can say some peoples heart goes out to the 80's animated version of the Turtles. But also, some peoples goes to the Mirage comics version, some to the live action Turtles, some to the Archie comics versions, some to the Image comics versions, some to the Dreamwave version, some to the Fox Kids versions, and now a new generation of fans is spawned as well. For me even in the case of personal distaste towards Bay's style, the fact that the franchise is once again reborn and a new age of fans ushered in, as well that this secures interest in the original work outweighs the means. As well the current IDW runs newly found fans, the upcoming Nick show, an assumed new video game series, and of course multiple toy lines, ect. The cycle continues, in probably one of the best maintained and daring franchises in comics. Fred Wolf ruined a franchise? Nope, he actually changed the world.
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