The Hungry Samurai said:
Piracy only makes the industry stale as developers become more gun shy to take any risks on things that may not be bankable.
How does that make sense? If even some of the claims about people liking it and later buying it are true, then piracy is having positive effect on taking risks, since it allows people to play (and potentially buy) other things than sequels and imitators of things that they already know they want.
And even if it isn't true, piracy wouldn't be more harmful to experimental games, than to established blockbuster franchises. Even if all piracy would be eliminated tomorrow,
and if everyone would act like the younger self that you described, so it would lead to an overall increase in sales, a disproportionally large part of that increase would go directly to EA's and Activision's big franchises that everyone feels "obliged" to check out even if they are not partcularly big fans, just because they want to stay "in the loop" with other gamers.
Also, popular things are easier to pirate. Indie content is only infrequently uploaded on most casual pirate sites, while overhypes blockbusters offer piracy links before you would even finish typing their name in google.
Besides, even if the pirates themselves really won't ever pay for the things that they play, they are spreading it's good name, so it won't remain obscure, and people like you can hear about it and buy it. Having a large playerbase can be a marketing benefit on it's own, without directly milking every player.