I haven't paid much attention to any of it, as I don't really like multiplayer games anyway, but I always just assumed many people figure out how to cheat simply as a meta-game. I mean, how can you ask what the motivation to cheat is without asking what the motivation to even play the game in the first place is? Barring professional competition, both playing and cheating are largely meaningless activities outside the simple enjoyment.

A bit of both. Some very clever people, often in Russia or Philippines or Venezuela etc where incomes and legal risks are low make the cheats, and sell them to idiots in the west.

> What's the motivation/justification...

No doubt there are various reasons, some more understandable than others. There are some fascinating historical cases, like the one explored in "The King of Kong" :

https://youtu.be/_4v15X8Px34

Which is well worth a watch, if you're curious.

You don't neeed DMA hardware btw. Just find a signed driver that's vulnerable to run whatever you want... Also, not hard at all. I guarantee you have a driver you could re-purpose on your windows machine right now.

do you not have any hobbies? cheat development is insanely fun