Recognition is a growing thing. It doesn't come instantly. If you write for others, you don't really have as good of a reason to write as if you wrote for your own sake. As the saying goes, "Write the kind of story you yourself would want to read." Anything else is supplementary.
I'm not trying to diminish the worth of someone writing for other people, but it is a motivation that tends to disappear in times of hardship. Not so for the other type of motivation I mentioned.
