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Commercial muds have been around for almost as long as free ones (in fact, the first mud started out free but later turned commercial). It's only really the 1989/1990 generation which banned commercialisation and thus made the majority of muds free (or was there a similar restriction on the 1987 AberMUD? I don't know to be honest).
For the same reason that anything in life is changed from a hobby to a means of making a living.
A handful of people are able to live off of their muds, so obviously the profit is sufficient to make a living from.
Most muds can't do it.
Nor would I, but I have no problem with other people doing so (as long as no licenses are being violated).
Why should they?
I sometimes hear people claiming that all software should be free. If it was, I'd have to find a different job, which means I wouldn't be creating that "free software" in the first place. The same, I imagine, applies to a lot of commercial muds.
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