Sony is a dispensible broker/manager who no one likely assigns credit to for a work

Pedanticism that totally avoids the point. Whether they provide the product or create it, the logic still obviously applies.

You also seem to be implying they have good metrics on black market activity and useful feedback from that.

This also defeats the point that it is some duty to pirate it, because if they have no idea the scope then how many people doing it is not going to affect their decisions there either

Can you explain further why grabbing an unlicensed work helps Sony?

If we're being pedantic, I never said it helps them. I said it let's them know there is demand there and that not consuming it would be better for the goal.