[hguant]

I would argue that media pcs and home servers are becoming _more_ not less important, precisely because Netflix, Disney+ et al have become such bad stewards of movies and shows, both in terms of deleting content, and no longer being "worth it" for the price. Anecdotally, I know more and more friends and coworkers who are moving to having their own media servers because they don't want to have to hunt through different services for their favourite shows or movies, or they've been burned by Amazon changing the streaming license of their "purchase."

[hot_gril]

I don't think piracy is a broadly popular method of watching media, not because it's wrong but because it's technically challenging and inconvenient. And if it started becoming popular, the industry would respond by either cutting prices or beefing up enforcement. Either way, the STB remains mainstream.

[franga2000]

This is very geographically dependent. There are many places where piracy is the primary way, with most primary school children already knowing their way around a BitTorrent client and whatever the biggest tracker in the country is. With software like Jellyfin/Plex and the -arr suite, it only takes one tech-savvy relative to have the whole extended family and friends watching pirated media like genuinely easier Netflix.