I think this is a pretty interesting phenomenon, and I think it mostly comes down to team size and the need to make money.
On a passion project you're not getting paid which means expectations are low, you're not obliged to do anything and you're basically free to work on what you want, so you pick things which are interesting and impactful for you e.g. exploring a new technology or tool you're interested in.
As soon as there's money involved you introduce expectation from the person paying you, which means trying something novel is harder because there's a good chance it'll fail.
This is all just a long way of saying that when there's money involved I think people prefer an outcome which is predictable, even if there's a potentially much better solution but it comes with more risk.
On a passion project you're not getting paid which means expectations are low, you're not obliged to do anything and you're basically free to work on what you want, so you pick things which are interesting and impactful for you e.g. exploring a new technology or tool you're interested in.
As soon as there's money involved you introduce expectation from the person paying you, which means trying something novel is harder because there's a good chance it'll fail.
This is all just a long way of saying that when there's money involved I think people prefer an outcome which is predictable, even if there's a potentially much better solution but it comes with more risk.