It’s not about the distro. Most distros out right now are pretty good. What you need is hardware that lots of people want to buy with Linux installed on it as the default choice. Normal people don’t want to install any OS, be it Linux, Windows, MacOS or BSD. Whatever comes by default, it’s good.
I’m pretty sure that right now the most popular Linux distros are ChromeOS and SteamOS. I wonder why
That’s not at all how piracy works. They don’t lose any money by me not buying their product, the money was never theirs to lose. They can earn money if I buy it, but if I don’t, then nothing changed. It’s not like every company is entitled to my money.
Pirating or using Gimp or Krita instead, has the exact same effect on them, ie me not buying their product.