The problem is they’ve been going after parody derivatives. Think of someone taking it and putting arms on it, or putting Steamboat Willy at the wheel.

Allowing derivative works would allow a printer manufacturer to modify a benchy model to best suit their printer’s strengths, potentially defeating the purpose.

Would it really though? That’s just tweaking the print profile to work best with the printer which is the goal of the benchmark. It won’t necessarily help you learn how to tweak your profile, but it does show you what your printer is capable of when calibrated correctly.