You were right that it was never going to stay good but for a while there Netflix was pretty damn good and had enough content to keep me from needing to pirate stuff. Yeah you don't own the content but it's the same as watching TV or going to a movie. You're paying for the service and as long as you have sufficient content to keep you entertained I wouldn't really call it a rip off.

This is no longer true of course since they all got greedy and split everything to a bunch of different services so now I'm back to torrenting everything for less than Netflix costs and I get to keep it. There is a bit more time investment required though.

I'm a pirate and have been pretty much always, but I also realise that if literally everyone pirates, then where's the funding for these things gonna come from?

Because when streaming began, it sort of deflated the DVD-market, and a lot of smaller but not exactly small projects have complained this. Because it's made the investment riskier, but also more profitable. So now all we get is reruns and remakes and huge new shows for one season which then get cancelled.

I think public funding would be rhe answer, honestly. BBC studios are expanding, and I think that's actually pretty smart of the UK. Hell, I'd donate some money to the BBC now for all the great shit I've watched for free over the years from YouTube. Peep Show, Quite Interesting, etc etc. And aI love Doctor Who, so it's great Disney dropped them, BBC will want it back.

If there was like a straight up donation page for every movie / show etc and you knew the donation would count towards "ticketsales" but it was completely voluntary... idk. Something I've dreamt of.

So that the creative choices wouldn't be in the hands of studio executives who don't give a fuck about the art they're making, just profits.

For instance Stargate has the fandom, people want it back, the creators want to bring it back, a lot of the old cast would be willing, it's just the studios which are kinda the problem. Apparently they almost got into pre-production, had a script even, but then something something SAG-strike or covid or both.