For what it's worth Plex has been around since 2009. Emby on '08 and Kodi in '02. So anyone pirating before Jellyfins start around 2018 pretty much would be using either Plex, Emby, or Kodi. Frankly, Emby sucked until just a few years ago, and at least for my purposes for my purposes Jellyfin and Emby don't cut it. Back when I was trying to decide which to use I didn't like Kodi, but I haven't kept up with it so I can't speak on it today.

Plex also hasn't always been subscription only, or at least semi-frequently offer lifetime deals so it's just as reasonable as paying for something like access to real Debrid or whatever.

I-i mean yeah, what losers! Anyone who isn't self hosting bubble upnp streams to connect to their video player are living in the past man!