Many times "pirated", cracked versions of computer games have been not just "the same" as buying through the official publisher, but the cracked version actually better since crackers have fixed genuine game bugs in the official version, increased performance by removing quality deteriorating copy protection present in the official version, removed parts of the copy protection that will cause instability not just while playing the game but adding constant system instability even after the game has been uninstalled or added some other extra value, so those that did NOT pay actually got a significantly better product than those that did.

Additionally, if someone pays for a game through Steam or similar instead of GOG, the product they bought can years later just be removed from existence through some corporate greed, so the customer doesn't even really own what they bought, but just rented it, whereas a "pirated" game installer can of course be archived locally and reused however many times the user wants to.

This is even worse.
"Rockstar Games reportedly sold games with Razor 1911 cracks on Steam", but the real cracked version was actually fine... whilst the official publisher's distribution of the cracked game had broken the crack, leaving the game nigh unplayable.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/gaming/rockstar-games-reportedly-sold-games-with-razor-1911-cracks-on-steam/