So I don't know if anyone will even see this, but we should run another rounds of nominations. It's been 3 years since we had them and there are several names who need consideration

I'm honestly not sure what the purpose of the HoF is in the first place. What is it for?

In baseball or hockey, only the best-of-the-best get inducted. So in SWM (which has a much smaller pool of candidates than either pro-baseball or pro-hockey), one would think that we'd have a much smaller list of inductees.

But when we talk about a SWM HoF, by contrast, I assume it is less about 'the-best-of-the-best' and more about providing recognition to those who have contributed in a big way to the SWM game and/or community. So it seems to me that the SWM HoF is basically a big "Thank You" award. Is that correct?

Yes, we used to appreciate people.
WotC started the Hall of Fame by giving out special Avatars to people for winning events or contributing to the game.
Gen-Con winners were auto-inducted. We haven't had a new inductee in years because no one new has won or done anything significantly helpful.