Honestly, in my personal opinion, it is probably due to hard work and not getting compensation for putting out your work out there. I tried to run a server myself and holy sh*t. There are tons of scripts, tons of bugs and tons of random issues that actually need to be fix. I think what is special about the latest servers is that, when you get your hands on the latest files of Maplestory (let's say), there are lots of stuffs to do and when you actually finish the fixes, why would you want to "share"? It would be, i guess guided by ego and opportunity to stand out, wiser to run the server uniquely by yourself. This is why i think contribution is slowly diminishing. There are some exceptions such as the creator of Swordie who shared a latest version of maplestory, but even then, the server still has bugs. And by all mean, if he fixes all by himself, there is no incentive to "share". I recently thought of: "why not people ALL work together for the latest server?". But that is a selfish and delusional thought because in my heart, i want to leech from the people who made the server. They literally poor the poop out of their soul and then people will just snatch the sources. It's just not possible anymore. I wish it was possible... I truly wish i can still snatch the latest server and just run it with friends...It's selfish as duck...but whatever man. In the end, it is Ducking harsh, but we have only ourselves to rely on.
I think a minor reason, that has to do with the overall sluggishness of the private server community, is that private servers have grown to be much less competitive as the official server expands its content rapidly and actually took a few steps to address its outstanding issues. If you have played the official servers in recent years, most private servers out there just feel bland and uninteresting.
I'm also a little salty about a lot of people actively ignoring the AGPL license of OdinMS
To be fair, no one bothers reading what it's about / etc and to begin with all of this isn't exactly legal so there's no way to even enforce the licensing.
Is this really hard to understand? Just quickly overview the top MapleStory servers on GTop. You'll soon realize how much easy it is to make money off people who still refuse to get over MapleStory. What's really sad is that they don't even have the decency to say it's for their own gains and they cover it with "server costs". Why would you share stuff online if you can make quick, easy money without doing much?
Here's a quick overview of the top three trashy servers on GTop. They're the most popular because they simply lived long enough but they offer nothing but a plain, boring gameplay (I don't blame them, you can only customize the game to a certain extent but still, they don't put poop effort because it's easier to just make more money):
1. MapleRoyals: Pure money-making machine. Their website says "All money received by MapleRoyals is put towards various expenses related to the running of the server", and also "Our current expenses total approximately 1,500 pounds per month", which both are shenanigans. They make much more than 1,500 pounds and I doubt even 5% of that goes into their (relatively laggy) server. Not sure what "RoyalPoints" though, but it sounds like P2W.
What's even funnier is that they only introduced high-resolution client now, and they have different setups for them. Why? Because they literally made the small maps (e.g. Dark Lord's Hideout) bigger on the higher-resolution setups by creating a new map with a new ID, so you literally can't see your friends if they use a different resolution client on some maps. Why? No idea, really dumb. Also, every "patch" is a different setup which is already ~2GB.
2. MapleLegends: Another pure monkey-making machine. Their website says "Donations will be used for server hardware improvements, advertising, and other server-related services", and we all can assume that huge Jacuzzi Kimberly bought is a server-related service. They don't have P2W with the donations so meh.
3. KastiaMS: From a quick look, looks like a huge money-making machine with ultimate P2W packs. It's also pretty dated with current MapleStory so it probably has a lot of players who spend $.
Most of the devs now contribute their work with each other and help each other out if the server needs help with one thing or another. People still contribute fine, just not in public. With constant v83 servers popping up lasting for 1 month with the full purpose of cash-grabbing donations and overall downgrading the quality of the servers available I can see why some devs just got tired of contributing in public when they gain nothing much out of it
The magic of sharing is in my opinion not gone. it's just no longer public, but with each other.