Yeah basically. Not only that, but, for all of the most expensive software I use, I used a pirated version first for months/years first. Once I really got a feel for it, if it provided value to me, I have pretty much paid for it everytime. And no, a 30-day trial doesn't cut it for evaluation. If I used the software enough to where a 30-day trial would have been enough to test it properly, the value proposition would have already been there to just buy it. Software trials should be based on hours used or something, and the eval periods are almost always too stingy.

Instead, the value proposition to switching to paid became once it had established value to me, and I could benefit from the reduced exposure risk of running malware in the cracked version, and possibly get updates if they affected major things like stability, or new tool-sets or access to online data that was useful.