OP is aware that the term hackers had, and still has, a completely different meaning in the community it originated from. A real hacker is someone with the skill to modify a codebase to suit their needs. The corruption of the term by corporate media is an attempt to steal the fundamental human right to share one's digital work freely by labeling these people and their work as criminal. Hacking means modifying source code to suit your specific needs. It could be used to refer to the efforts of someone learning to become a kernel developer or it could be someone modifying the software source code in ways that are not suitable to share with others, such as features that may be incompatible with some systems or features.

Cracking has long been proposed by hackers as a more appropriate term describing a bad actor attempting to gain unauthorized access to a system.

It seems pedantic at first and in my simple explanation here too, but if you look into the details, philosophy, politics, and people where this term originated from, then look at the opposition and how they profited, and finally look at the state of current society and the internet, you will likely see this as, at least mildly, offensive. Like, I still misuse the term as if it has dual meanings, but anyone using it correctly gets my attention right away.