I mean... Saying that it doesn't result in lost sales at all is disingenuous.

They aren't losing 70 dollars for every download, but they also aren't losing zero.

I often took the same approach back when buying a game was a financial consideration. But even though now 4/5 times I already know hat I'm buying and just pay, there are still the 1/5 times I'll pirate first as I'm really on the fence. Due to this I have a few games I ended up completing on pirate, but bought the game (and DLC if relevant) with 0 hours in my library because good work deserves recognition.

Otherwise we risk losing those good developers to other careers or into the AAA meat grinder.

For clarity I'm talking Indy titties here, I doubt I average much above 0.5/year AAA purchases anymore

Edit: actually I'll go one step further. If I pirate your game and hate it, then its delete and forget. If I buy your game and hate it that's a potential negative review, maybe even though me and that title we just a bad fit. This is why demos need to become ubiquitous again