As peer comments mentioned, that's completely missing the order of causation. Steam is a better example, because there was never any weird organization threatening everybody they could send a letter to with lawsuits. Yet it grew exponentially.

I think, in general, there are relatively few completely ideological 'pirates.' People will buy things when they can easily afford it, and it's easy to do so. When it's too expensive, not locally available, or when the payment methods involve hassles, they will simply download it instead.