Yet if region locks and other nonsense didn't exist to begin with, piracy may never have had such a foothold. The history of commercial games and digital downloads is one of insane abusive behavior of consumers.

I still have a large list of games that I have legally bought but can't play because some manner of native drm or protection - having to practice piracy is the only way I can play those games.

Denuvo, the Sony rootkit, the finite number of installs that was a thing for a while, the list goes on.