Whole thing about Modding is that, yes, people put a lot of work into the mods. However what I've learned about modders is that they're modding is either to sharpen their development skills and also produce something that can also give them more attention to companies. Sure, a lot of mods do not become full blown games (like TF, MnB Vikings, etc.) but a lot of mod makers who create excellent and impressive mods are hired to work on other projects and other games and they GET PAID, modding is also a strange community, people appreciate their work and people get donated.
Things like piracy circles do the same thing - they do it to work on their own skills and often with their reputation they get picked up and hired. Steam's attempts at monetising mods was stupid, gay and unrealistic. If Fallout 4 finds itself with a paid mod system it will cause the biggest shitstorm on this face of the galaxy.
