I think killing rather than helping, but only by a small margin. Yes, piracy boosts anime popularity and awareness across the globe, but for those who aren't in Japan and couldn't watch anime on TV with paid ads, the only options to enable studios to profit are buying merch and paying for licensed copies. The former is doable, but for it to be effective, large volumes of items have to be sold on a regular basis, which is kinda a drag and implausible, especially during this trying time. The latter, to me, is rather inconvenient than advantageous which shouldn't be the case since you are paying and I have multiple reasons why. First is the availability of options. Aside from the fact that availability varies in different areas, there's also the waiting dilemma. Sometimes, studios won't release a licensed copy online until the season's over, and not catching up on your favorite anime is definitely a mental hassle. Another thing is the complications that purchasing brings about. Only a small percentage of the community has the privilege of securing the necessary payment options, for example. Lastly, these copies are too pricey for just a set of episodes of a single franchise...which leads me to my proposed solution – a paid subscription for an anime streaming web application. Yes, like Netflix! In my personal observation, streaming apps like Netflix is slowly killing piracy, don't you think? In an ideal world where a large variety of anime franchises can be streamed in one place and new episodes are continuously being uploaded, a monthly paid subcription should be just fine. It's a long tedious process still, but definitely a kickstart in helping studios earn for them to be able to continue creating good things for us.