It’s like Gabe said (paraphrased): “Piracy is a service problem, not a pricing problem.”

Make it easy to buy stuff and people will. But the more barriers you put up, the more people will pirate. Granted, there are persons like you (and I counted among those at one point) who cannot afford things from time-to-time, but we’re a minority. Every game I’ve ever pirated from those days I have made sure to purchase once I was able to.

Make it available for easy purchase and people will buy it.