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.
We were on the same path! I started my own bbs, which eventually got me access to some of the big time bbs clearing houses that had cd towers worth of stuff. They had isdn lines, 28.8 modem banks, etc. I had to do a phone interview with one of them… I think that was “Phantom West” and another one that happened to be in my calling area called “Transfixus Sed Non Mortus”, which eventually got busted. Those Phantom guys actually produced pirated discs and manuals to sell at computer swap meets and to China.
Dogs were off the leash then. Did I need Harvard Graphics? No. Was I downloading it? Yup!
As I grow older and can afford software, apps mostly, I’m ok with throwing a little back to the dev. Can fuck right off with a subscription, however.