buy merch, subscribe on patreon or otherwise send them money.

None of these things give you a moral or legal right to have access to other content they have created. You send money to the dev directly? What about all the other people involved in the project? You buy merch? Good for you, that gives you the right to have that merch, not something else they created.

I would never try to prove this to some internet rando

You would never be able to prove it on a large scale, that's the real reason why you would never do it, it would be anecdotal evidence and that's it.

assuming that because I think pirating from a faceless corporation abusing their customers is ok I must think that artists dont deserve money.

The second you pirate content that's exactly what you accept, they there are people that don't get compensated for their work.

For someone with more experience its wrong in the best case and brutally abusive and manipulative in the worst.

Funny how the people concerned wouldn't agree with you, guess they're not experts.

You starting to use more and more aggressive and derogatory language instead of keeping calm or disengaging shows me that your intent is to be abrasive, not to change anyones mind or have a meaningful discussion.

And you refusing to face basic facts and logic shows me that you argue in bad faith.