I mean, I'm sure people do keep well-meaning but awful gifts from people they care about. Setting that aside, since we're talking about gifts from strangers: Consider that there might be a difference between 1) visibly refusing a giftfic on AO3 and 2) accepting but then discreetly disposing of a gift you dislike irl.

The irl equiv of 1) is staring the giver in the eye as you throw their gift into a bin.

The fic exchange equiv of 2) is "Thank you for writing for me" and then never thinking about that giftfic again.