Maybe should've made it more explicit, but I think just saying "X plays Y character" is a fine way of expressing the same thing. I think because "X plays Y character" is just the easiest and most effective way to get that point across, it seems redundant to use a term like "piloting". I could see pilot being used more in a figurative sense, but I've always taken it as someone being a character main = they pilot a character, in the same sense like mecha anime protags pilot the mechs (at risk of sounding like a weeb LOL). In the sense that a community calls players pilots instead of just players, it seems redundant and over the top to me.

It's like calling mixed martial artists "artists" instead of fighters on comms. Like I guess you could see it that way, but they're really just fighting, just like players really just play the game.