Allow me to make you irrelevant

"Persson's more optimistic, believing that piracy can, in the long run, be beneficial to smaller game developers"

yeah, it will get you more exposure and more people will be using your game, but less people will be actually paying for it. If your goal is to get the most people using your game, embrace piracy. If you actually want to make a living, it's a different story.

As more and more people know that you are fine with piracy, less people will actually pay for your app/game and it will then become even more difficult to release something else that costs money.

"But a single person spreading the word about your game is a benefit if you ask me, so any amount of piracy could help."

I don't really know how this will help. Anyone that I know that pirates software and "spreads the word", just wants to give it to me for free.

"But a single person spreading the word about your game is a benefit if you ask me, so any amount of piracy could help."

It's a sad world, but "hoping" people will stay honest isn't the answer. You need to make sure they are honest if want to continue making a living.