The Benefits of Making a Buzzy Game

The team behind Buzzy made their first game on the Internet, Room of 1000 Snakes. It was a silly art game that used Bubsy illegally and James Terrell's art. They never made any money off of it in their whole career. Do you think this is because games are now more accessible to people who didn't know about them before? Or does it just have something to do with like aesthetic literacy or what not?