They have a bunch of lawyers inhouse who do this as part of their day job. Sending a cease & desist to github and patreon costs them nothing extra, and neither of those will fight Nintendo in court to protect IP infringements.
Conservatively, if several thousand forks appear, they may hire an additional person and cost themselves a couple hundred thousand. Given your point, there must be a more effective way to be an attrition-based nuisance.
They have a bunch of lawyers inhouse who do this as part of their day job. Sending a cease & desist to github and patreon costs them nothing extra, and neither of those will fight Nintendo in court to protect IP infringements.
Conservatively, if several thousand forks appear, they may hire an additional person and cost themselves a couple hundred thousand. Given your point, there must be a more effective way to be an attrition-based nuisance.