Many people misunderstand the term ‘hack’ in application to writing.

In such use, the noun and adjective ‘hack’ do not come from the verb ‘hack’ meaning to chop; they come from references to things offered for hire, which in turn comes from horses and horse-drawn vehicles offered for hire, and thence from reference to Hakenei (now Hackney), a place in London where horses were pastured.

What characterizes hack writing as such is not a lack of skill, but that it is made-to-order, and thus that the writer has less freedom to choose the starting place, the destination, or the path from one to the other.