I mean, if your options were downloading a pirated movies from a shady website, or streaming a pirated movie from a shady website, why would choose the first one?
Once I have a local copy, I don't have to depend on the continued availability of the shady website. I can pass the copy along to friends who might also enjoy it, and I can watch the movie whether or not I happen to have high-speed internet access at the moment.
Torrent download sites are everything but shady, if you know how and where to look.
Maybe, but usually when I want to watch a movie I want to watch it right now, not in a few hours.
If you’re on a private BitTorrent tracker, the video quality and encoding is often significantly better (bitrates often double). The download speeds saturate your internet connection. Piracy is often the best, fastest and most ethical option (no DRM).