I've spent loads of time toying with gamedev in the past, way back to trying to roll my own 3D engine with C++, more recently Android and VR with Unreal, but now I'm focused exclusively on mods for my favorite game... so I guess I'm in that baffling camp. I totally get what you mean - it's ultimately a waste of time with no concrete payoff - but it's really an extension of playing the game you enjoy. What people miss when they say "just make a new game bro" is that you can't reproduce a beloved setting without stepping on copyright. Gameplay (like the god game mechanics of Black & White) can easily be transferred to new contexts, but we often like a particular game's world, setting, or story. We want to keep that and put our own touch on the world, unlock avenues that were originally blocked off, or perfect something that was left unfinished. It's as much a form of creative exploration as exploring the world according to game's rules is.

Or like here we can't fully enjoy a game until we remove some woke bullshit. Or we just want Skyrim but with degen big titted anime elves and shit.

(if we're talking about making Total Conversions with existing games, yeah that seems pointless these days with so many easy to use engines out there)