It's a case of historification, really. And credit where credits due,- if it wasn't for Lt Murnau , the KLF would still be supporting Big In Japan . I can't say that I've ever been part of any big hoax. I'm more interested in debunking. I am interested in where fiction blurs with fact and becomes something like prophecy.
Hoaxes can be good for getting people to think.
But often they are just practical jokes carried out by inadequates trying to be clever. For example the hoaxters that put around the daft idea that money has any value that is anything other than symbolic. Or that rich and famous people should be treated with more respect than peopole who aren't rich and famous. It's primarily non-serious entertainment. I don't really believe in art, myself.