> where the retro communities themselves don’t value LLM work

What do you mean by “communities”? There was no enthusiast Council of Nicaea where all people who like old hardware met and unanimously decided that LLMs are bad and their work not to be valued. I see plenty of “retro”-adjacent work done with LLMs posted here to a generally warm reception.

Are you just referring to the views of an extended sphere of enthusiast mutual friends that you know?