Well we can agree to disagree on that point, it's pointless to discuss ideologies.
The newest iteration of SimCity was not pirated for more then a year, because of it always online policy. It did way worse then it's predecessor, to the point where they even tried to move it to an offline platform, at which point, yes it was pirated.
I think those two markets are separate. Those who want to pirate it will, those who don't won't. If we somehow magically removed piracy (SOPA?), how much would that change the standings. The biggest question there is how much of those pirated copies are lost sales.
There is a reason why free to play games are so popular nowadays, but that is a tangent that would take it's own thread to discuss.
You insinuated strongly that they were a big contributor, it was a direct reply to what you said, no strawman at all. Also when those experts are paid by the same companies that have a conflict of interest and use research done/payed for by the same companies, excuse me if I don't swallow what they have to say. That's in the same line of an oil company paying for research on global warming and then having their experts discuss it.