researchers work in universities, almost all of which have site-wide licenses. Site-wide licenses for mathematica also start to approach reason. Its doubtful that that many researchers will have to pirate it.
Really? By definition? Was Erdos not a "researcher?"
Matlab quotes me $1900 for a single common license: http://www.mathworks.com/store/loginSubmitGuest.do while Mathematica is $1750: http://store.wolfram.com/view/app/mathematica/
How much does site license for Matlab cost you?