Re: "Making the pirate experience less fun is part of the strategy."
Wot he said.
Let's take GoT as an example. Want to watch that live on normal telly? OK, sign up for Sky TV because you can't get Sky Atlantic on Virgin Media. But wait, there's Now TV as well! OK fine, so now I'm paying for Virgin Media "normal" TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, and also Now TV. Let's just swallow the extra cost of Now TV for a moment, and actually watch Game of Thrones on a PC using Now TV. Chrome isn't supported, because uses Silverlight to stream the video, so you're forced to use Edge/IE11. Don't want to use Edge/IE11? Fine, install the Now TV Windows app... after you've signed in to the Microsoft Store, of course. Oh, and don't you dare move window focus away from the app while you're watching - like trying to open an IMDB page in a second monitor, for example - because it'll terminate playback and won't resume from the point it terminated itself.
Or... or... I could download latest episode as a torrent and watch it how, where, and when I want using whatever software I want. Or, better yet, I can automate the whole process so that downloads as soon as it's available - that way it's ready and waiting for me when I get home from work. And then, of course, I'll buy the BluRays when they're available.
Piracy is a symptom of over-enthusiastic copyright enforcement. Let me watch what I want, when I want, on the device I want, in the highest quality available, and I'll stop using Usenet+Sonarr.