I think there's an exception to be made in your argument for abandonware. There are classic arcade games that wouldn,'t exist any more but are widely available due to MAME support.

Internet archive, and a chunk of r/datahoarders, is built for that purpose. Just as people have saved old paintings (aka media) it's also good for us to save significant pieces of our current culture. Old VHS tapes and CDs are already disappearing. Sometimes finding something is just a little bit more difficult and it's only going to get worse.

It doesn't need to have been a noble goal to be a noble result.

For something to be actually and reliable preserved and win against random decay, data loss, disaster, and whatever else will statistically destroy copies, a thing will need to be stored by at least thousands of people. But there is no way to know how many, only that you increase the likelihood of perseveration by storing a copy.

I agree, most people are downloading a thing because they want it. But by keeping that thing, they are also preserving it.

I pirated plenty when I was young and poor, I'm pretty sure that helped form a desire for that sort of stuff which I pay for now.

I bet if I had abstained when I couldn't afford it, I wouldn't have spent the money on all the content I buy now

I believe the bulk of pirates are people who wouldn't have bought the content if they had to pay for it

People who are doing porting work to make Windows-entwined Ubisoft games available on Linux are helping to preserve media for the future. People booting up Limewire are doing nothing.

I have a Spotify subscription that I still pay, but built a library full of FLACs on the side specifically because I got fed up with "right holders" taking songs in and out of my playlists and having the right to deny me access forever.

It literally would be cheaper and easier for me to just use Spotify.