> I tend to expect private individuals to seek targets with a higher expected value.

If you're a very skilled and dedicated hacker, what other targets do you have that can net you many millions of dollars?

> or an individual with a motive other than profit

Isn't one of the most striking things about the hacker community the extreme amounts of time and effort that are put into things that are not expected to generate any profit?

I mean, there are people who spend all their free time over several decades just digging tunnels under their property. Or build a 6502 CPU from discrete transistors. Etc.