Ethical or not people look for alternatives if they feel the cost is too high.

No. What you’re dancing around saying is that unethical people steal when they don’t want to pay.

I am totally not dancing around it, that is straight up the observable and factual reality of the world that we live in.

I do think that painting everyone who commits a crime of any magnitude with the same broad brush is unhelpful if you are, say, a large media company trying to make the big money.