I'm in the process of putting together a modpack. Most mod devs are extremely reasonable and just want credit, which is fine. Some are mostly reasonable and want credit with a link back to their forum post, which is kind of stupid in a modpack, but whatever. Then some want you to register on a forum, ask permission and explain the purpose of your modpack and all kinds of other doggy tricks, and if there's no guarantee of a response even if you go through all that. They'll just do it if they feel like it.

It would literally be easier for me to just be able to pay these people a few dollars through a paypal button than jump through their arbitrary restrictions and try to keep track of which mod dev feels like responding to a forum post/email.

I understand why they're upset about these 9minecraft-like sites. They use SEO to mislead people to drive traffic and get advertiser money. They're just bad for the community. However the anti-pack attitudes some modders have is toxic.

There's no good reason other than ego why a mod dev should want people to grovel at their feet to get permission to include their mod in a pack. I think it's a barrier to entry for would-be pack devs and it stifles innovation. Considering their innovation piggybacks on the hard work of others - Mojang - I refuse to do it. And the idea that I should have to explain the 'point' of my pack so they can judge it's value as though they're the arbiters of all that is good and right in minecraft modding? bahahaha fuck off.

I will give credit where credit is due, but I've got better things to do with my time than keep track of which of the 215 mods in my pack have a dev with an ego who requires me to beg for permission and await their response before I release it. You know, like work on getting the mods to play nice together since they often don't.