Hack does refer to cutting with rough or heavy blows. Centuries ago, "hackers" referred to people who made rough-shod furniture with an axe. That was a hack back then.
In WW2, "hackers" were mechanics in the US Navy who hacked off the broken parts of airplanes to weld together the working parts of broken planes. That was also a hack. The planes were referred to as "hack jobs."
History is littered with examples using exactly the meaning you cited that are quite the opposite of nefarious. The very essence of Maker culture is about the old definition of "hacker."
