And even within hacking there's so many different preferences, you're never really able to satisfy everyone anyways.

Basically what I tried to say here is that just because (some) people don't like a thing does not make that thing irredeemable even to them, it can just be a thing in the game that's not great but also not bad, most people will experience a thing and then keep playing if the game is good.

People might give an offhanded comment about armor mov or the Est being bad but it's very whatever stuff, it's not like this condemns a hack to hell even for people who aren't the biggest fans of it.

And there's plenty of people who play hacks who also like FE4 and other vanilla games. People can prefer one thing but if you do your own thing well and the vision is communicated clearly people can enjoy that too.

I mean, basically every hack has vanilla-type bosses and no one is throwing a tantrum over that, even if people don't agree with you it's not a big deal to most people. Ests have a higher appearance rate in hacks than mainline, armor mov is still heavily debated and varies from hack to hack...

Ironically these days the lack of skills tends to be a very huge selling point for a lot of hacks, though the higher difficulty than vanilla is still normal, though I would attribute this more to people just being experienced FE players.

Ultimately if you make something good and compelling people will be drawn to it and there are people who are deeply interested in this kind of exploration of FE in the hacking community, but they're more entrenched and you won't see them just by vibing.

I saw that, it also feels not very perceptive of the hacking community, people tend to like good stuff, not just hardcore conquest skills or whatever. I heard DLATMOL and Shackled Power are pretty good along these lines, Dark Amulet as well. Dream of Five/Drums of War I also hear do a good job.

Hack names I can think of off the top of my head:
An Unexpected Caller
Drums of War
Dream of Five
Call of the Armor
Iron Emblem Gaiden
Duty Calls
7 Siblings
The Dark Amulet (disputable)
Vision Quest (a bit old at this point)
Shackled Power
This is all I can think of atm but there's def more

Is this based off of any evidence? I can name probably 10+ hacks made in the last 5 years that actively lean into vanilla GBA mechanics and being simple which are not whatsoever inspired by conquest or engage or heroes. This feels like talking about the scene based on what you imagine it's like.