Nah! Like, I listed a few places in my post about stuff I've done for fun! In fact, that's one of the big reasons I gave for potentially wanting to work with someone collaboratively!
I'm following you now though, I think! I do think you're right that context is playing a role here -- the context your post exists in is one in which Folks Who Want Free Work constantly urge that "Man You Gotta Do Free Work Sometimes, that's how you get exposure and make connections!" So a post urging that free work can sometimes help you get exposure and make connections is going to be read in that context, and it isn't gonna quite sound like "sometimes, collaborating with other people can be fun, and it's not necessarily bad to do!"
I think the changed title might have the same struggle, tbh! I think what's happening here is like..... the point of confusion (from what I can tell) is that it sounds like you're basically intending "if you wanna do an extra non-paying thing for fun, it's not bad to collab with someone for free, and you might even get something good out of it!" which.... I don't think is a super controversial point! but that first bit of the sentence is sort of implied, rather than stated outright -- so when it's just "it's not bad to collab with someone for free, and you might even get something good out of it," it sounds very different if you're not assuming that first bit.
As soon as you said "oh, no, I'm just talking about doing a thing for fun, and if you don't wanna do free collabs, you might miss out on doing a fun collab," it made more sense, so I think that's the bit that's getting missed!!