As a rule, people are pirating the most valuable art, not the best. This is an important distinction, because by conflating them, you are buying into the industry's point that the most expensive art is the best -- and as the monopoly cartel controls the price, that becomes self-fulfilling.
It is true that in pop music and movies the best art does not necessarily win, but even bad movies have some level of professionalism that is absent from indie productions.
YouTube becomes the cartel these days, and tries to drive down the price for "content" to zero.
It is far more evil for artists than any middleman taking 60% or more of a substantial sum of money.
There are pirates who are in it to make money, and pirates who are in it to get the art itself. The former might focus on most valuable art, the latter focus mostly on art that is the best - they're not going to pirate something they don't like (I'm purposefully not taking into account things like downloading that horrible Celine Dion album for dear old mumsy. :) )
The best art has always been produced by professionals and not by some YouTube narcissists who think they're God's gift to this world.