I imagine it's partly because people don't want to be de-platformed and blackballed from every potential employer for making edgy jokes, and partly because it's a lot of work.
In my experience, ROM hacking seems to be mainly for the hyper-autistic. At least until you find some simple guide to get you started. It's difficult at first, but as you become more familiar with everything involved, the difficulty fades into tedium. It starts becoming a chore. It may be rewarding if you can get people to test your hack, and provide some good recommendations, and if it's well received, but it's a complete buzzkill to release a hack you spent weeks making, to get no reaction or response.
Why make anything if nobody's going to even look at it? It's not so much a matter of getting praise, but when nobody's even downloading it, it feels like a giant waste of effort.
