This was never about availability, it was always about not paying.
Signing up to different services that are based around monthly fees and then having to deal with those services when you might only want to binge one show is inconvenient.
Having to deal with personal data loss / fraud when those services get hacked is onconvenoent
Having to use multiple different apps (or even devices) for different shows is inconvenient.
Having to be online to watch the show is inconvenient.
Pirating can be more convenient than the above (see other posters fully automated setup) and when it is, the path of least resistance wins.
It's really less convenient than setting up a plex server buying multiple TBs of storage and presumably dealing with all of the hassle involved in joining a private tracker?
Piracy is simple.
Piracy is only simple if you are content with watching cheap rips that you download from the pirate bay on your laptop.
And oftentimes --especially in the case of Disney-- the consumer has paid for the movie several times in several different formats. Meanwhile if a pirate downloads a digital copy he has it for life, with the ability to transfer it between devices and watch it after cancelling a service. Piracy is still a distribution problem.
There are also numerous annoyances, such as shows split across multiple services, lots of exclusive shows, and of course a lot of older films can be hard to find on streaming services.
Gabe Newell was right, pirating is a service problem.
I pay for content, but I find is desirable to supplement it with the occasional torrent.
TV and movies haven't figured that out yet and the rights warfare is very intense. People just want to see the content they want to see easily when they want it, they will pay for that gladly. There is almost a PTSD about what movies/shows are available, not, when they will go away, etc. I like to own movies and shows to always have them.
Streaming catalogs are all incomplete except Netflix, a bunch of parts to a collector that is madness. Another annoyance is even if you buy streaming access you might not get the show you expect, for instance CBS All-Access doesn't have a CBS show Everybody Loves Raymond. Streaming movies/shows is a patchwork of minefields that requires research in times of leisure. Noone wants to go hunting down the show they want to watch right now and should be available across the 5 streaming services + live TV they use, but it half the time is not there. You have to search and find which platform it is on currently if at all.
Side note, I buy tons on iTunes because I can still download the movies. Though the content protection is also problematic for customers that bought it, just an annoyance that they shouldn't put on content. Netflix is allowing this now as well, same DRM trap though. The quality of streaming still sucks especially on desktop/PC where browsers are limited to 720p. 1080p/4k is what people want and streaming is going to get extorted more and more by ISPs when they start pushing more 1080p/4k.
Netflix did occupy that comfortable spot but now the market is being needlessly fragmented because every copyright holder wants to make their own streaming service. Not having to manage one's subscriptions is obviously better than having to do it, regardless of how fast it is to switch.
For reference, here all of the apps that integrate with the TV app.
with the exception of regional blocked content you are right, but now we are back to a point where it becomes (relatively) expensive to have a big enough variety available to watch
Not if you have ADHD. Subscriptions are one of the worst prisons imaginable.
The new streaming reality is quickly turning into hell.