At least for media, piracy websites have a more extensive catalogue (of course) but they also have better privacy which is crazy. And they also allow you to use ad blockers. Sites you pay for would still show ads sometimes and don’t even allow VPNs.
At that point there is no point on paying for streaming and if you wanted to support the creators you could do it separetely with merch, other proyects they have or direct donations if any of those are aviable.
Ditto. I used to nab stuff (movies, audio software) from Usenet. Then DVD rentals via mail came out and I paid for that. Then Netflix started streaming. Lots of content available for a single monthly fee. Nice. Much more convenient. Then the studios decided that what Netflix paid them in royalties wasn’t enough, we should start our own streaming service. That’s when the high seas became alluring to me once again