Historically, as I understand it, there was a strong tradition of hacking (in the original sense) as well as cracking in order to get all the dodgy Soviet knock

Historically, as I understand it, there was a strong tradition of hacking (in the original sense) as well as cracking in order to get all the dodgy Soviet knock-off computers working with imported software, and so on. That bled into the demo scene, and I think the tradition continues to a certain degree, and is concomitant with the educational philosophies mentioned in other comments.