Reality is that for every crime that turns out to be a hoax, there are many, many crimes against people like Mr. Smollett that are legitimate. According to the report I linked above: "However, in just August of 2017, NCAVP recorded the highest number of anti-LGBTQ homicides in our 20-year history of tracking this information, and decided to release a mid year report to raise awareness of this striking increase."
Using the odd-example of a hoax to paint all people who are the victims of hate crime as fakers denies that there is a big - and growing - problem and denigrates the many, many legitimate victims.
But that's, of course, the point for many.
Blah blah blah....