What interests me is the intelligence and innovation of this. You would think these bad actors would fair well doing societal good using their skills and not resort to crime.
As to why they choose this way, over a "legitimate" (like dark pattern writing, or PID mining) vocation, there are many reasons.
I suspect that a big one, is the "blackball" effect, that having a conviction on your record will create. Once we are convicted, then we become unhireable, in many industries, so it's not like we have a choice. Also, the pay for nefarious work can be quite good.
If the goal was to learn just enough about cell tech to exploit it for profit, then a legal approach is off-the-table because of the extraordinary effort needed to ever get anything off the ground.