I don't feel too strongly one way or the other. It's alright. You can make up your own mind about it. Anime fans tend to circle jerk a lot of things. If you like it, cool. If you don't, cool.
Fucking absurd.
I mainly stick to x265 for the size. I'm not too snobby with quality and for the size its fine with me. I want to like AV1 but have issue with playback on some of my devices. Usually i just play locally off a HDD on xbox (Kodi) . This may not be an issue if/when I get a NAS. Not sure if there are issues with transcoding as I haven't really looked into it
I use subscene and opensubtitles for when I need srt files. You can also look into addicted (spelled wrong).
As someone has brought up SubtitleEdit (program) is super useful is you need to OCR some PGS/SUP (bluray subtitle formats) files. You can also sync an existing SRT to your video file if push come to shove (this is usually my last resort though because its may be a lot of work if it isnt just a simple sync shift - doing line by line is awful).
I have been using it for the past few years. I haven't had any issues so far.
My rule of thumb is to just wait till the blu-ray is released. Ill either get a remux or a very solid encode. Web-DLs can usually be found earlier than the blu-ray release too (usually like month, or a few weeks, before the BD release). I'm not saying rips or cams cant be "good quality", but I would rather watch an actual scene release or closer to the quality of a physical counterpart. I'd rather be patient and just wait for better releases.
At the end of the day it's about what you like, what is available, and how much space you got.
My rule of thumb has been 8GB per hour of content for 4K (I don't remember where I heard of got this from, so at the end of the day, this is just some arbitrary number). I usually stick to x265 encodes and so far this had been good enough for me. Some prefer the best (untouched remux), but like you mention, these files are huge. Even though I have many drives, I dont want each movie being 70+GB per file. Sometimes I break my rule of thumb and do get "higher quality" (that isn't a remux). I think the biggest file I have is around 50GB for a x265 2160p encode of a movie where a certain king returns. A with everthing, there are exceptions. Just do what you want.
This has been good enough for me. Obviously, the bitrate of audio matters and its format. That, in and of itself, is a whole other issue ( lossless or not, channels, etc..)
Admit to downloading a car and you on a list forever.
Mobilism, Audiobookbay, yandex (the search engine yes.. very easy if you just use key words in your queries). I'm sure private forums are helpful as well.
Edit: I use mobilism quite a bit and audiobook websites that have links for rapidgator or other hosts. Having a debrid service (all, real, etc) is super helpful because I can usually use the premium link service to convert the link so I can download at full speed. Not all hosts are supported but its not often I find a link from a host that isnt supported. If this does happen, I just bite the bullet and go ahead with a slow download.
TG and 1337 are pretty good and have me covered. I also have a copy of the RARBG database that has the hashes that I use if I want to find something from there. Pretty easy to get the magnets from Qbit and then save the magnet back as a .torrent and then check if there are already cached in a debrid service. Pretty easy and simple
Music is a weird subject for me. I download practically everything else to have a copy of it on my hard drives. 30+TB of anime, movies, tv shows, manga, audiobooks, etc but music is the one thing I dont really download or listen to very often. I have a modded Spotify app that I use for the times I do listen to music. I do this so i dont have to pay for a subscription, but that is as far as my music piracy goes.
I'm going to chime in with what I think. I've been sailing the seas for a while now. And at the end of the day I am all for people doing whatever the fuck they want. Want to pay for streaming? Fine. Want to digitize you library of blurays, cassettes, dvd. etc..? Go for it. Want to share everything you have? Cool. Want to be a bootlicker? Fine, I guess. Want to hit n run every torrent you every come across? You a bitch, but I mean there isn't anything really stopping you. Luckily, certain communities have ways to weed out people that don't share similar values (whatever they may be). I am part of a thriving one. I am more of the belief that all media should be available to everyone forever. That's all I'ma say about that, and at the end of the day I know of the issues with this sort of thinking, but I am not gonna elaborate nor argue with anyone about anything.
At the end of the day people will do what they want (for the most part). With regards to the larger idea of paying for content, that is gonna be done in one way or another depending on what you do. You never want to pirate? That's fine you'll just have to pay for internet and whatever streaming services you want. You also run the risk on never again being able to access certain shows, movies for a variety of reasons (licensing issues, because companies can just pull the "fuck you" card, etc). As for pirating, the cost of this is always going to depend on what you want to do and how long. The minimum you will need is a HDD/drive to download your shit, internet, and then a player to play said shit (TV, android box, etc..). If you want to do more you'll have to pay or have available a computer that will host your shit (old computer, NAS, etc). If you have a robust collection or are digitizing your movies/shows, once again you are gonna need drives. You can get an external drive or invest in those huge drives (20+TB) to get more bang for your buck, but they also aren't pocket change to throw around. Luckily drives are always getting cheaper, but know that they don't last forever and they aren't always super cheap depending on how big you want them. As for services to stream your shit to your devices, there are plenty of free and paid things to make that happen.
There are also tools/services that I pay for that have made obtaining content much easier, but by no means are they necessary to eventually get the media. I'm not gonna lie, it does seem a little ironic that I have had to pay to do/obtain the things I have, but I do not regret it at all. These tool and services allow me to have the my current collection and allowed me to do it quickly for the most part. I am part of a community that is thriving and passionate about what they care about with regards to media. I am not going to go into the whole, "is it moral?", or "where does piracy stand?" argument cause at the end of the day I don't give a fuck nor am i going to try and moralize piracy or whatever . People can do that till the cows come home and feel any which way they want. Not my business and has no bearing on what I am doing.
Back to the point of money and piracy, like I said, one "pays" for media in one way or another. Some forms are cheaper, others are more convenient, and some choices are maybe even both. At the end of the day, from how I see things, most thing are never going to be truly free. It is going to boil down to what you care about doing, how fast you want something, how long you want said thing, maintenance, convenience, and finally, money. While you don't need much money to start pirating there is a bare minimum of required things. Yes, you can acquire them for free if someone gives them (computer, phone, etc..) to you but there are people that don't even have that. Someone that is destitute (by this i mean someone that literally has nothing, no home, no phone, no computer) will not be able to pirate. Then there's the internet issue which some people may or may not have regular access to nor have reliability.
Money will always be tied to piracy in one way or another. Depending on who you ask there will be different answers. It varies widely on how you view piracy and what you view as money spent towards it. They money I have spent on drives alone and my NAS compare to years of a subscription to multiple streaming services. Money is part of the equation on any side you take, whether straight laced or eye-patched.