I was raised by conservatives in a red state, so I think there's actually multiple factions of "conservative" (per your definition) that get lumped into the same category. I find some of them are more understandable than others.

First off, there's the assholes that are in power and want to retain their power. They don't want improvement, because why would we make things better for others if it reduces the benefit you get, right?

There's the people who don't want improvement as a response to the trauma of growing up in a bad situation. They were often told they didn't deserve aid, and as a trauma response, they've built a mental fortress around being strong enough to not need aid. In their minds, they believe their fortitude means didn't deserve the aid after all, but it leaves them unable to comprehend that the system actually failed them. They see "improvement and evolution" and think "yeah, for everybody but me, no thanks". This is the group "hard times make hard hearts" is referring to. This is often comorbid with the third group...

The conservatives that aren't in power, but still get indirect benefit from the system as it is. Sure, the system isn't great, maybe they live paycheck to paycheck, but there's a roof over their head, so they don't want to upset the house of cards. These are the people who understand "new and improved" on a can of soup means that it's gotten worse, and have seen the nonsense that politicians are calling progress, but that's about as far as their understanding goes. It's easy to say that education is freely available, but learning about actual progressive politics takes a certain amount of free time and neurons that aren't fried after work.

Then there's the typically religious (but not always) nutjobs that want the world to end faster. This is where you start to see the weird overlap with ecofascism. They believe humanity is a scourge, and we ought to die. My stepfather was mentally ill and got us involved in a christian-flavored cult along these lines. I'm one of the rare few that can count themselves fortunate to have been in poverty, because it means my parents couldn't afford to send me to a Jesus Camp or a private school. I left as soon as I could, and don't talk to them any more.

I got lucky, and was able to get out, but people really don't acknowledge how hard it is to overcome indoctrination. When I realized at 19 that I'd been raised with nothing but lies, my entire reality crumbled in front of me, and part of me died that day. I was raised to have my entire identity be in the cult, and I didn't even know who I was any more. I wound up couch surfing and being transient for a while until I got my head back on straight. If it hadn't been for the couple of internet friends willing to help me out, I'd still be homeless.