I use the 30 dollar subscription for Maya and Photoshop, which is really affordable. These days getting your hands on professional software is cheaper/easier now. However, no one is really going to tell you that they are using pirated software.
Even large companies make the mistake of not purchasing all the licensing they need.
I did learn of some developers waiting till they got funded so that they can then purchase the software they needed, instead of using unlicensed software.
These days though it shouldn’t be hard to just purchase a subscription, they are fairly cheap.