" Could you imagine if when companies were re-releasing their games on digital platforms if they would work with romhackers to include some of these things as official releases?"
Well, I heard that SEGA does allow romhacks to show up in the workshop for their standalone Genesis games on Steam.

"I guess, if they did that, they would then take legal action to block the free patch from being available."
You're just thinking of Nintendo on that one lol