Its just a shame that its like this. I understand both sides of the argument.
If you're a modder you kind of want to be able to exert some kind of control over your mod. Being buried in a compilation means no one will care that you actually made that part of it. If the compiler did a bad job it could reflect poorly on your mod. Updates to your mod would be a bitch to explain to people with an edited compilation version because you dont know how the compilation is set up, etc.
On the other side, who the hell really wants to sit down, track down 40 different mods to update the game (if you even know what you're looking for), and work your way through the rats nest of compatibility issues just to play an old-ass game from 2002. Most sane people will just skip it and play Oblivion or something. The only way to get those people to do it is to have a compilation that makes it easy to get up and going.