Don't sleep on Small Gods, it's incredibly good.

It is never wrong to be a pirate.

My instance can still interact but I do get bad gateways going to their site directly and have to reload so your guess is as good as mine.

They defederated because they didn't want piracy discussions on their instance.

I don't try and push my weird opinions on my wife lmao. She knows how I feel and understands and does what she wants and that's okay. My advice is to communicate and respect each other even if you don't agree and don't be a controlling dork.

I'll admit I took the bait, but I am more embarrassed for the instance that they got to actually defederate.

I think you succinctly described the problem the internet is facing. I am not even sure making it illegal to have information is really necessary anyway. Consider Googles Web Environment Integrity, DRM that can effectively control access to websites, a single company controlling the information we are allowed to consume. An economic system based on capital will always work against our interests.

This is why piracy is not only ethical, it is good for humanity to share information as widely as possible.