"Piracy isn't stealing, that's intellectual property lobbyist propaganda."
You're correct, but it's worse than theft. When you steal a car, just that car is stolen. Piracy devalues the original product...something theft can't really ever do.
"I would happily download a car: zero cost reproduction of useful things makes society as a whole richer."
But how much did it cost to produce the first car? and do you actually think anyone would put that much time and effort into the first car if they didn't a way to make a profit or at least their money back? In your world, technology will only go so far..which is a disservice to humanity.
"The content industry needs to figure out a new business model to adapt to the information age"
They have: streaming services. Your mentality is why we will only have services that we pay for in the future and won't be able to install software or get a Blue ray.
"I'd much prefer a kickstarter or patreon-like model where superfans could fund and watch and participate in development."
Which wouldn't even get close to the amount of money needed to develop this kind of content.
You aren't being rebellious. You are just giving excuses as to why you would rather just download something for free instead of paying for it.
I remember in the 90s the excuse du jour for music piracy was that it would help independent artists. It's only made it so most independent artists can't really make a living anymore and pushed everything to large corporations.