There are specific niches and specific relationship models where piracy won't do this. But there are far more where it will.
Ultimately it comes down to the ridiculous notion that because cost-of-copying is effectively zero then so is product value.
This handily ignores the hours/days/weeks/years of development effort that can go into a product, and the use value - which may translate into income - that it offers users.
As a creator you certainly have the option to decide on the relationship model you want with your customers. Piracy removes that right.
But that right is entirely artificial in the first place. It was given in order to encourage more creation. Saying that some creations would have been encouraged had that right been enforced (not even that is a given - a pirated copy does not equate a lost sale 1:1) is not enough to justify copyright without weighing that against all the negative effects of copyright - overhead to licensing, enforcement costs paid by society, people prevented from creating derivativees, etc.
I don't necessarily think AAA game studios are trying to extract every cent. But they do exist in a pretty unique situation in software. Since they invest a ton of money up-front to produce a game, and something like 85% of their sales occur in the first month or so. And those profits are invested back into the creation of the next game.
Piracy is very much an issue in this situation. Delaying a crack by one week is probably the difference between solvency for studios.
It is absolutely the case that some game studios might not be effected by piracy. Either because they don't make their money from the game, but instead from selling in-game items, their product needs online support for maximum fun, or some other reason. But the industry is definitely big enough for piracy to be both a problem, and not a problem for different players.
While this is true, the ones who don't tend to get eaten by the ones that do, eventually. Fantastic game studios are one flop away from closing their doors most of the time, so attrition is high, and the allure of recurring revenue via predatory microtransactions is hard to ignore.
The PC and Android gaming markets are slightly different beasts.
This mindset is not compatible with creating multi-billion dollar software like Windows or GTA 5. The only way to do that involves financial structures that are more complicated than just making a living.
That's not to say I think such software is necessarily a good thing, just that it wouldn't exist without aggressive profit optimization.
The argument is that your living could be more substantial, if you did worry about it.
My app is practically almost free except for a nag dialog, and I still make a living from it.
Piracy may matter to big companies that have lots of employees who try to extract every possible cent from their audience.
If you just want to make a living from your software, you should not waste time worrying about piracy.