I still can't wrap my mind around why people wouldn't want to have compliance with AML and KYC to better help that this doesn't happen
The first part of your post was OK. But the second part shows your complete ignorance towards the basics of cryptocurrency. How KYC is going to prevent the exchange hacks? Most of the exchanges which were targeted by the hackers were KYC compliant. Cryptopia is a perfect example. On the other hand, BTC-e / Wex.nz which went without any mandatory KYC requirement survived for more than 7 years, before closing down due to unknown reasons.