I see this claim often but bypassing DRM is an inevitability to the point where it's commonly done within hours of a new release simply for the fun of doing it.

And to quote Gabe Newell (founder and owner of Valve, the company that operates Steam):

> "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

> The proof is in the proverbial pudding. “Prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become [Steam’s] largest market in Europe,” Newell said.

from https://www.escapistmagazine.com/Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Pir...

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There are certainly cases where people will pirate to avoid paying but in the event that the option to pirate is not available, they will generally just go without instead. The only situations where piracy really becomes a matter of pricing is in the openly exploitative services like Academic Journals.

If you have 2 options, get the product for paying a market price, and get the product for free, I think 90%+ of all humans will get it for free. The only thing stopping them is friction and consequences. I’m not as optimistic as you, that the only reason people pirate is because it’s available in their geography (why not use a VPN and buy it then). Some people will pay for stuff, I never use pirated stuff, but I’m pretty sure that group of humans is a rarity.

Thank you for this!