Like really. Now I'm going to say that playing games, listening to music, watching shows/movies and even reading books is a bit of a luxury. It's a quality of life thing. But that doesn't always mean that each of those mediums have to be charged so damn much to even enjoy. Much less, the quality that gets shoveled out anyways with what we've seen.
What pisses me off the most with the entertainment industry, is how they expect you to buy the same things whether it's a different format or on a platform multiple times. Furthermore, they willingly take away shows, movies .etc on a reguar cyclic basis on streaming platforms.
When AnimeSuge went down, I felt a little lost and for once actually considered subscribing to Crunchyroll because AnimeSuge had the 1997 Berserk on there. Guess what? Crunchyroll and no where else had it. So much for the legal alternative, huh? By the way, yes I know of alternative sources so please don't recommend me those thanks.
And this is the thing with this fucking industry as a whole. They honestly have this mentality where if something is not available then it's "too bad, fuck you" or if something is broken or not working then it's just "BUY ANOTHER AT FULL PRICE!" because they look down at people making backups of their copies.
It's like, leave us the fuck alone. If something is not available anymore with absolutely no assured plans to bring it back for re-release and to be available on even streaming platform which leaves us to pirate - let it fucking be. What, are you going to make a shitstorm for people who buy movies and shows while thrifting? Surprised these fuckers haven't gotten to that process yet because of how god damn greedy they are.
No, they don't. Yes, there are the people who will buy every single release of every single disney movie. But the general idea is that just because someone bought The Fifth Element on DVD twenty years ago doesn't mean they are buying every single new 4k UHD re-release. Obviously that would be preferable but...
That annoys the piss out of me. But... that was how TV worked for decades. Seinfeld will always be on at 7 PM on TBS every single day until the end of time. But the three people who actually liked Coach? Once that got replaced by... Becker? It was "gone forever" and no longer something you watch when you are skipping school at lunch. And if you were REALLY a Wings superfan? You bought it on tape.
Most of this boils down to... we actually have it REALLY good these days. I remember when I had to make it a point to stop off at Best Buy on my way home from work for a month because I had read that a really cool CRPG called "Evil Islands" was coming out and knew that Best Buy would buy like three copies. And some random soccer mom was likely to buy something for her kid while she was buying batteries. And, of course, Best Buy wouldn't tell anyone when they got new games and when they would put them on the shelves.
Now? I can hear about my dream game and still wait until a week or two after launch for a sale because Steam will "never" run out of copies.
I personally have no problem pirating shit if I can't get it otherwise (mostly because I would rather a proper blu-ray rip or to have it on Steam/GoG/whatever). But I will always call bullshit on that mentality of "We are just pirating because we can't get it otherwise!"
Decade or two back and abandonware was very much a thing. Plenty of us were signed up to private trackers so we could share CyClones or Star Crusader because those were dead games. And plenty of those trackers had specific rules about not having anything that is currently for sale... or Nintendo... because they totally were about preservation and it was nothing about getting sued. Then CD Projekt start up this Good Old Games site and it is exactly what we were all asking for. And... that led to discussions on what happens when suddenly those old dos games ARE available.
End result? GoG rips are the preferred medium because they are DRM-free(-ish) and so forth. And it was obvious it was never about preservation and was just about wanting to pirate shit. Which... is fine. Just obnoxious when people pretend they are noble because they want to play Darklands without paying.
Which is kind of the other recurring theme. People want to be pirates. Cool, steal that shit. Just don't pretend you are morally superior and a freedom fighter and blah blah blah. You want free shit. Cool.
If you want to accomplish a noble cause like preservation I don't think it's disingenuous to also satisfy some personal desires along the way. Easier to get people on board to do it if you do.
The issue is when those preservation efforts completely undermine themselves. That is why I specifically highlighted abandonware becoming "upload all your gog installers". When your "noble" intentions are predicated on not being able to buy a game or the DRM being too invasive and then you immediately encourage people to buy drm-free games and upload them to remind the companies WHY drm exists?
There is also very much the question of whether it even IS digital preservation to have a version 2.0 copy of a game that has had massive balance and even mechanic shifts over the past few years. Or a predominantly multiplayer game where botmatches were an afterthought. But at least that is a philisophical debate. Rather than just "gimme that Stranglehold"
My reasons for pirating varies by the context, however. Sometimes, I'm pirating something for morals & freedom, while other times it is because I would rather pay money for it but the only option is a DRMed one (and yes Steam is a form of DRM if it requires Steam to play), whilst other times I just pirate it because I don't wanna pay for it.
So, yes, depending on the context, someone can be a pirate for reasons other than "pirate".
Bottom-line is that while I agree with you that people shouldn't kid themselves if they're just being a pirate for pirating's sake, I think you also shouldn't ridicule others who are pirating for less-selfish motivations, at least during instances when that is their sole, or at least primary, motivation.
Tl;dr – Shit's complex yo.