This is where you and I differ. I don't think we do have to wait before passing judgement, because this isn't a court of law.
With the weight of evidence against Trump (and, reading between the lines about the ongoing FBI investigation, it sounds like they're on to something big) the innocent explanation becomes increasingly untenable. For example, Trump fired Comey, then admitted he wanted the Russia thing to go away. Why did he want it to go away? Because it was annoying him, or because he was worried about the outcome? Sure, 'it's annoying me and I want to stop so I fired the guy' is totally in character for Trump (though I doubt he'd phrase it that elegantly), but given Flynn, given Manafort, given everything else we know, then the former explanation presents itself as the most likely.
Even given the above, there still is the question about the nature of the contacts, i.e. whether it was just "Putin wants Trump to be elected, Trump wants Trump to be elected - let's work together" or whether it was, as you say, more transactional.