Until we have an economy where people don't starve to death from lack of food or die of frostbite from being homeless, we have to figure out ways for people who actually make things to benefit from that work. Copyright is currently protecting people who rely on the product of their labor to make ends meet. Until we have the fairy tale economy you envision where artists can have the work stolen and still live, this is the best we've got.

And yeah, wild to think people feel entitled to own their own work thanks to silly things like the entire body of copyright law.