I don't know why however. Some people actually like the 'challenge' to beat a game going outside the rules and don't consider it cheating.
Personally, I feel it's less than noble using alts at all. And when one leaves a lvl 1 sleeping around to just gain something, I feel it cheapens the experience for everyone. Also, if you can have only 6 or 8 pirates on a smaller ship, it's almost guaranteeing a losing battle if 5 out of 6 or 8 are sleeping on their decks and not repairing. It's certainly not the captains fault nor fair to the voyage as well.
POTCO even allowed people to have multiple accounts per IP address. The only thing that was prevented was having multiple accounts per email address. Of course the main reason why they allowed this was probably so that people would keep paying for each account.
I had a friend who would create the max # of pirates (which was 4 per account in POTCO), master them all, and the create a new account and do it all over again. I do believe that she had 6 accounts before POTCO closed.
I myself had 2 accounts to my name. Both of them were unlimited the last few years that POTCO was open. And YES I did have two accounts on at the same time many times. Not often though. I mainly did this when I was on during the day while the kids were at school and I needed to do quests or level. I would use one to heal or as a totem to tp to.
This is in no way cheating. Does it give someone an advantage? Well, not exactly. I had gone to jail many times even when having a second pirate logged in to heal. Things just happen in game.
TLOPO allows you to have as many accounts as you want, as long as it's one account per email address. Just like POTCO did!
Again, this is not cheating.
Some people prefer to level or quest by themselves and they will use alt accounts to assist with crew bonus or healing.
What is cheating? That is using a third party program. Doesn't matter if its on a secondary account or the main account. If you're using some kind of clicker program to enable you to constantly click to heal or fight, that is cheating. Doesn't even matter if you don't have a second account and use it, that is cheating.
You however are welcome to play TLOPO however you feel is the most ethical way for you to do it. If that means only one account logged in at once, then that is fine.
AFK on ships... Y'all are splitting hairs now and going in circles debating this. This has always been an issue, even in POTCO days. Just like rep stealers or claiming loot spots. Everyone has the right to play this game however they want, as long as it is within the TOS for TLOPO. And going afk on a ship and mooching off of someone else's efforts... Well, that's mooching, not exploiting.
Many people have had excellent points with not knowing who is on the other end. Do people do this on purpose? YES. But others are correct in saying that sometimes, real life happens and they have to step away without explanation.
My advice is for each of you to deal with this however you see fit. If you want to let your ship sink, fine. If you want to get a good crew of hard workers, port and then close ship to public, fine. You do you in game and worry about how you play. All points have been heard by the developers and the community on this issue. We'll just have to wait and see if the kick is added to regular sailing or not.
In the mean time, try to keep this subject civil and refrain from name calling.