I definitely mean "stealing" as "depriving the publisher of the cost". Limiting the term "stealing" just to moving physical objects really makes no sense in the current world.

it only holds if you'd actually have ponied up were the content not available for free

That's an interesting case I never really considered. If you only genuinely pirate stuff you would never buy otherwise then... I guess it's fine? But this alone doesn't put the end to the discussion because I find it really hard to believe that people would just give up all of the stuff they pirate if they had to pay for it. But in some cases, sure, sounds reasonable.

Artistic content is, believe it or not, produced outside of capitalism as well.

That's true of course but I don't think just pretending we don't live in a capitalist world and taking stuff for free is making this world better in any way.

Let's say something costs $20, from which 75% goes to make some rich guy even richer and only 25% goes to the actual author who put in the work. It's more important to me to give that $5 to the author than NOT to give the $15 to the rich guy. Would I prefer there wasn't a rich guy in the equation? Yes, of course, but that's often just not possible.

In the end, I genuinely want the world to be a better place but I don't really believe in extreme solutions. I appreciate your civilized answer despite different opinions. Peace!