I hear you man. The thing is, I think most people have gotten to a place where they "expect" other people to pay for a mod, especially in AC, since they have seen how much Ilja is making through patreon. I don't blame people for wanting to get paid (including you) but as you said, you do it "for pleasure" and at the end of the day, that's what really matters. If you expect people to pay you, and almost no revenue comes in, you will be disappointed (applies to everything in life, where you have expectations). But remember this; Ilja started out making nothing as well, so maybe if you stick through it and you keep updating and improving, nice things might come!
Just as a reminder: I myself have a mod that have had some 4-5k downloads and I've made ~30 euros from it, which took me some 400hours to do (still not complete) but that is life. I did it because I wanted to and yes, it would have been great if more people donated, and I probably would have made more if I sold it for just 1 euro but at the end of the day, how many free and fantastic mods have we gotten from this community? All in all, keep doing what you do, improve, share it on more forums/sites and maybe great things will come