Because I worked in Hollywood when most of the gay porn was being done there I had the opportunity to meet more than a few of the now obsolete guys of times past.
The reason that stage names and false identities are created has to do more with retirement after your career is over than it has to do with working in the business.
When you are under 30 a porn career is or was at one time a way to make money and good money if you have what it takes. After 30 you either move behind the camera or into something else. The business is very age conscious.
People have gone to great lengths to break out of the business afterwards. I knew a young guy who grew up in Altadena, California. He was older than he looked, had a penis larger than most and in spite of being youthful in appearance, after a while he wanted "out". In order to get out of the business he let his blonde hair grow back to dark, went back to his birth name, and still had several incidents where people in order to draw him back in went to employers and exposed his "past". Finally in order to get rid of the vulchers in the business he had his home telephone forwarded to his Mother's home. She told producers that he had died of complications of HIV. In fact he was not even HIV sero-positve. He is alive and well. His life-partner works in the aerospace industry and the retired star owns and operates a florist franchise in the Los Angeles area. A few friends and very trusted aquaintences know of his past, but unless you know him he will never discuss that part of his life because it IS and will always be his past.
One of my very good friends was a man who acted under the name of Ed Wiley. He was a wonderful person and though ill with both HIV and Hepatitis he lived out his life for many years working in the construction trades. He passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly from complications of the Hepatitis. He was still being sought and in spite of the things going on with his body, there were porn producers still trying to get him in front of a camera. Sadly, just before his death he had finally met "Mr. Right" who loved him for whom he was.
Getting in to the business is far easier than getting "out" of it because even the older videos are still being marketed by the producers.