I think this is one of the big things which has changes in the MUD community over the decades, a major change which people have taken for granted.

Originally a MUD was just a hobby. Gods were pretty much selected by virtue of being collegemates with the other Gods. Muds were run by people with lives.

Hmm, when someone with a life undertakes a massive endeavor such as running their own mud, rather than spend a few weeks setting up a stock system and then spending 40 hours a week babysitting it, theyll instead devote some time and effort to making something new and innovative which runs itself. "If you build it they will come..... If you download it from the nearest stock codebase archive they will come but only if you give up the rest of your life to babysit them"

This has to do with the fact that people with lives want to make a product enjoyable to the general public, something they can show an arbitrary friend who's never heard of MUDs before and the friend will like it. Whereas, the majority of people who set out to start their own MUD, pretty much market it to geeks and nerds who are already established in the MUDs.

A standard mud might be described as "20000 rooms, triple tier remort, OLC, IMC, optional PK, Builders accepted". Try running that past a random person on the street. They won't be the least bit interested, in fact they won't even understand what you're talking about.