We could get back to the point that there's really no such thing anymore as truly original in the games business - only variations and improvements on a theme. If its injected with, as you said earlier, enough of your own personality - then laying your influences out can't have too detrimental an effect surely?
My own long-in-coming game is incredibly influenced by other games I've played in the past, 24 years of gaming and its bound to be - and I'm pretty proud to say that if it wasn't for Eugene Jarvis making Robotron in the first place, I wouldn't have even considered taking my game to this place it exists in now. At the very least I think I owe him a namecheck as some sort of thanks.
Course, its all down to where your own moral-o-meter lies. I can't see any harm in laying your cards on the table and saying "yup, I loved x,x and x game, thats why I'm making games like I do". Its your game and your work, and surely we're all influenced in some way by other folks work down the line?
Even those that innovate have their influences. Be proud of what you do and the reasons why, I would be
