Simon, as a co-developer of the show, continued to receive residual checks from one of the most successful TV shows of all time right up until his death. He poured much of that money into charitable work through his Sam Simon Foundation
Simon built the foundation upon which The Simpsons now rests. In Scott's New York Times piece, longtime Simpsons writer Jon Vitti, there in the early days, says, "If you leave out Sam Simon, you're telling the managed version. He was the guy we wrote for."
Even if Simon's name remains less well known than Groening's or Brooks', it's still a fact that he contributed several terrific scripts to Taxi, Cheers, and The Simpsons, three of the funniest TV shows ever made. And his "second tier" of shows contains venerable programs like The Drew Carey Show. The man knew from funny, and he knew how to write. And in his post-Simpsons career, he pursued varied interests, including becoming the manager of a boxer and doing extensive charitable work. Indeed, by the end of his life, he had given much of his Simpsons fortune away.

So why all the conflict? Why all the rumors?
The Simpsons began, Groening was the cartoonist who had dreamed up the characters in the first place, Brooks was the Oscar- and Emmy-winning genius behind Terms of Endearment and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Simon was a guy who had written for Taxi and Cheers. It's easy to see why he could feel overlooked.
A series formed in conflict

Simon himself would be the first to admit he was often hard to work with. "There's some perception that I'm difficult, and I think that's fair," Simon said on the podcast, after explaining how the pressure of running a show tended to make him "prickly." He also said in the podcast that he hadn't spoken to Groening or Brooks in years and that he hadn't watched The Simpsons after leaving the program.

"People you work with, they aren't necessarily your friends. You don't have to read anything into that," Simon said on the podcast.

""People you work with, they aren't necessarily your friends""

The conflict that drove the development of The Simpsons was real, and it was integral to what made the show one of the best in TV history.
By the time "Flaming Moe's" aired, it was becoming increasingly clear that The Simpsons was going to run a long, long time. And because Groening had been the guy who first sketched the characters and came up with their names and personalities, he was always going to have the "created by" credit that would elevate him to a "first among equals" status in public perception.

His characters, however, were created for a series of animated shorts that aired during The Tracey Ullman Show. When it came time to blow them out into a TV show, Groening, who had no experience in actually writing television, needed help. Thus, Brooks and Simon helped him "develop" the series, fleshing it out from the initial bare-bones concept to the full show we know today.
We know Groening drew those initial cartoons. We know Brooks had a ton of experience creating great TV and movies. Thus, they become easier to latch on to as creative forces in public perception.

And yet the impulse to suggest Simon was the one who gave the program its early "heart" (as many partisans have) is also misguided, ignoring that Brooks is well known for his facility with bittersweet comedy, or that Groening was known for filling his comic strips and later series, Futurama, with deep pathos.

More likely, the show emerged out of some peculiar alchemy generated by the three creators. If nothing else, Sam Simon's legacy (beyond his charitable work) should be that he helped create one of the best TV shows ever made. Sometimes, the best art is forged in conflict. The Simpsons needn't be an exception to that notion.
In this Storystream... The history and conflict behind the creation of The Simpsons
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https://www.vox.com/2015/3/10/8181579/simpsons-sam-simon-flaming-moes