I also use VPN all the time for privacy - if I wasn't pirating I'd still have it. I've also used it at times to access region locked content.

I personally only pirate things I feel are more "moral" to pirate, or if I don't have a choice - I never pirate any kind of indie content, for instance, but I do pirate movies and tv shows put out by large corporations. In undergrad I pirated almost all of my textbooks because the markups are unethical. I'm not against paying for things, I just want to boycott some specific companies, plus I'm often too broke to afford things or sometimes need a downloaded copy specifically for offline access. When I was working full time I did actually pirate fewer things - only things from the companies I boycott or things I can't access legally where I live - and I will return to that once I finish grad school.