It's not really the same thing though, is it?

I watch a show once and I'm done. I have some games in my library with over 1000 hours of playtime. I'm about as careful with those purchases as I am with a good pair of boots, and buddy I am the most annoying man at the hiking store.

I have used piracy to determine if a product is worthy of a retail purchase my entire life with everything from Android apps to AAA games. I know that you are making the argument that I am an outlier here but I don't think I am.

Avenza maps is a good example. I tried it out with a cracked copy years ago and found it so useful in my personal and professional life that I have maintained an annual commercial license now for probably 10 years. I don't receive any additional functionality compared to using a cracked copy, and maintaining the license between installs is actually FAR more difficult than just installing a cracked APK. Avenza has become so essential to my life that I directly support the development at a level above what I require, to hopefully ensure the continued development of this reasonably niche software into the future.

Given the forum we are in, I would compare it to the paid versions available for several popular linux distributions these days. You can download Zorin OS completely for free and have a very close to fully featured operating system much like you can have an almost fully-featured version of a pirated game. You could use this daily without paying a cent. That still didn't stop me buying Zorin OS Pro. It's the same deal. I want Zorin OS to stick around and keep doing what they are doing, just like I want ID Software to stick around and keep doing what they are doing. That doesn't make any of them immune from releasing a box of garbage for full price (I'm looking at you, Rage and Rage2).

The only significant change in the landscape here in the last 30 years is the advent of services like EA Play Pro and Xbox games for Windows live. For me these services serve exactly the same purpose as piracy. If there's something I'm interested in I can sign up for a month, try the thing that I'm interested in and then cancel the service without any significant penalty. If the game is good, then I'll grab it when it becomes available on steam. So long as there continues to be no penalty for cancellation, this is an acceptable compromise to me but otherwise I am going to pirate your shit and if it is garbage then I won't buy it.

I tried Battlefield 2042 via EA Play Pro for one month. At release it was an absolute joke. Not even close to finished. A truly terrible game. Those that managed to win a refund were ok, but many people were deemed to have played too many hours in a day to qualify for a refund. My friends and I bought the game on steam for a steep discount a full 18 months after release. That's how long it took for them to fix the many issues and turn it into a worthwhile experience and a worthwhile purchase.

You can't hire games from the video shop these days to try them out and I'm not about to be somebody's sucker. The gaming industry is a complete mess, constantly pushing unfinished garbage and broken games. You've got to look after yourself.