The concept of having a 'non-profit' tax category was explicitly to allow for (and even encourage the creation of) altruistic endeavors. That's why we have them. I do believe the original motivations for the non-profit category were sincere in this regard.

However once such a tax category was created, there was really nothing to stop the sociopathic MBA class from using them as just another optimization tool in their tax-minimization arsenal. Another example is non-profit schools where the property is owned by the founders and they charge hugely non-market rents to personally extract revenue from the non-profit.

So in current days we have both genuine altruistic endeavors (they still exist) and the predatory ones abusing the system.