If by “your definition of piracy” you mean your country’s laws surrounding it, then in the USA you would still be breaking the law. The FBI anti-piracy warning that they put at the beginning of movies to warning you about the anti-piracy laws specifies that the unauthorized reproduction OR distribution of copyrighted works is illegal.

Your experience is still anecdotal and moot.

Hasn’t the game been in “early access” for like a decade? I heard that the dev went AWOL for years and now just decided to come back. I think I’m gonna pass on this one, been burned on too many times buying games for their “potential”.