Not the question you asked but to make it clear, I don't mind paying for things. I've had a Crunchyroll premium account for years and I have a whole bookshelf filled with official translations. But sometimes they come years later and you want to actually discuss the series that's going on right now with fellow fans, just like you would for an English book. Or you want to be able to read it at all (see: alphapolis).
Long ago, I downloaded a fansubbed anime series. My sister is interested in anime as a genre and has been interested in watching that series. When I asked her recently why she hadn't already watched it, she said "because it's not on crunchyroll".
In the pirate ecosystem, you can watch what you want to watch. The "legitimate" ecosystem seems to breed learned helplessness.
The worse part is when you see translation rights being bought and then the translator never following through to the end even if I put my money into it. I feel that's why I'm mostly ambiguous to the whole situation on what could be done better. I just know I would not be exposed enough without the pirates.
