i did notice that many players pirated LonaRPG before buying it, claiming something like "playing the game made me realize its worth supporting the dev for it" lol.
Not a fan of these sea bandits but thats just a fact at this point.
Yeah, people pirate it to see if it's actually good, like a demo. If there were no pirating option than those people would never even tried the game. And after they like it they buy it or even promote it by making content, localizations and there was even a cosplay (with nude pics too). Piracy is like a marketing tool now. + pirated version becomes outdated and users may want to buy licence to get a fresh release.