I feel there is room for improvement over the soulseek network, though that's about the best there is right now. It doesn't take advantage of downloading from multiple peers (like torrents), quality is good in practice but hard to be sure until you listen, and is missing rare / non-western music.

While streaming apps offer a decent value, I don't like the level of lock in. I have music from CDs and other sources that are a first class part of my library, and using only a streaming app would make them harder to access.

I really like Apple Music. Actually supports lossless, unlike Spotify, and it just feels much more music focused. Spotify has become too bloated, and I view it more as a "sound" app than a music app.

I personally download YouTube videos, convert them to MP3 and then add metadata to them.

Nicotine and Deemix(you need to pay for hifi for flac quality) is the way to go. I've struggled to do the same and now i am working on a gui app that sort of manages all of these sources together.

I have stopped caring about artists and instead focus on sets, on Soundcloud.

I just download all of my music with a Telegram bot tbh

For most people there are good enough solutions for music without piracy.

Try essential house.club, they have what you need plus some.