The distinction as iirc is that the hack gets crystallized onto a vector which is the point of value extraction. The labor of the hacker is not required once the ownership of the hack is put in service of value extraction via the flows of info in the vector. This is more like someone selling a patent than selling labor. The hacker that came up with some social media skinnerbox cashes out to Zuck or whatever, and Zuck gets to keep sucking value out of the vector in perpetuity as long as the info continues to flow via the non-labor labor of the user base. Salary and hourly workers that patch the servers and such are not considered hackers in this context.