It's pretty much window dressing, and hobbyist doesn't really mean anything special or interesting in and of itself. It's just one of the many words that men use instead of calling themselves "johns". Using pooner or monger is the same thing. Monger is generally a more used term elsewhere and people in Montreal seem to prefer to use "hobbyist" and "hobby". It's to avoid using "john" which has negative connotations to men who pay for sex, even though it means the same thing. The same is true for men here normally using the word SP instead of using other words with more negative associations. It's just a form of politenesss within the community. Internationally some men and women like to use terms that to indicate they're not full time either partakers or sellers (jinetera for women in Cuba is an example) which to me just seems like rationalizing, but again it's just social lubricant. I personally don't like either "hobbyist" or "hobby" and tend to use "monger" instead, but that's more just habit and personal preference than anything else. I do use hobby and hobbyist here occasionally just because it's the locally accepted term.
