There was a day when it was a new and exciting prospect to be able to write or just run unlicensed code on a console system. Gaming consoles were either basic hardware with a BIOS, or later, ran fairly static operating systems. You need to remember that these devices were also a unique form of hardware for their time in that they were a sort of mass produced/adopted computer that hooked to your television.
There was certainly homebrew for early consoles, but it was extremely limited due to hardware requirements and a lack of the level of collaboration we take for granted now-a-days thanks to the internet. The scene as we know it really got started with the Net Yaroze, the Gamecube, and of course the Dreamcast. We then moved on to more powerful systems such as the original Xbox. I personally feel the late xbox era was the beginning of the peak of homebrew interest due largely to the easier software-based attacks, hardware capabilities, and the introduction of XBMC. During this time, there was little to no consumer computer hardware that you could hook to a TV and stream media content from. It wasn't a brand new concept, but it was one that brought many new people into the world of console hacking.
This early console era had two major factors going for it. The console vendor's forced-firmware update cat and mouse game was still non-existant/in it's infancy, and computer hardware wasn't yet a cheap and readily availible commodity.
Updates were still possible after hacking as the operating systems were relatively simple compared to what we are now used to. The vast majority of games were also still either single player or local multiplayer. It didn't matter to most people if you could get on "xbox live" (though for quite a long time you still could anyway as console bans were a new/uncommon thing). The concept of "firmware updates" was not a big deal, and generally not a requirement.
Hardware that could run software such as XBMC was also simply not readily available back then. The xbox wasn't "cheap", but it was something that many already had. The idea of owning a "media playback device" was also strong enough to justify the purchase of a new system for many.
There was a draw, a reason to own a hacked console. It gave you something you couldn't get anywhere else and there were little to no drawbacks to hacking it and enabling this world of infinite possibilities.
Today, there are not only a dozen extremely cheap devices such as the Raspberry Pi that can do infinitely more than these older systems, but homebrew has already been achieved on so many previous consoles that the main reason to "homebrew enable" a current-gen console is simply for the challenge of doing so.
If you want to play emulators/homebrew on your TV, there are quite a few systems already capable of running them such as the Wii, PS3, or the 360. You can also now go spend between $50-$200 on some little linux tv/game box... or heck, a cheap laptop on ebay and just hook it to your TV.
Want a hand held emulator/homebrew system? Grab a PSP/DS/3DS. (or any number of linux based handhelds that dont need hacking...)
In both cases, the systems will be cheaper, you won't be worrying about keeping them at the latest firmware in order to play them online with friends, and any non-piracy "homebrew" applications you may run on them still won't come close to utilizing the hardware to their fullest anyways. I doubt we will ever see any homebrew come close to fully utilizing the PS4 in the same way a AAA title can. It is doubtful that any large amount of ps4 homebrew will be anything that couldn't run on hardware with a quarter of the specs.
Ultimately, cheap hardware and the addition of constant forced-updates for online-usage (which constitutes a large percentage of a modern console's use) have turned the running of native code on these current-gen systems into a novelty only enjoyed by those purely seeking the technical challenge to do so or those looking for a means of piracy.
A little sad for those of us who enjoy tinkering, but true.
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