The point isn't entirely the money involved. Although that does play a significant role.
You have to gather your five people, admittedly not hard.
You have to put yourself up for changes based on the community's ideas.
You have to pass by the admins and get a thumbs up.
You have to then stick to certain guidelines and/or restrictions.
You must always maintain 5 members.
You have to then wait 4 months (was 4 last I checked anyhow) to buy a system.
Then you have to have a certain playerbase and raise the money, then find a modder to work on it for you.
All in all, it seems like a lot of hassle to be told "Meh, you can't really do anything you couldn't do before."