>There have always been plenty of seeds, and there has always been a high quality version that has been easy to find
This isn't the case for me. I watch mostly "foreign" films (i.e. films in a language I don't speak or understand). If the subtitles aren't included it can be a nightmare to find some (I won't watch dubbed movies). Sometimes you can't find any subtitles at all (I once had a movie sitting on my HD for over a year waiting for subtitles to show up for it), often when you do find them they're out of sync [1] or awful translations written by people who don't speak one (or both!) languages very well. Often whole chunks of the movie will be left out or have one word explanations.
So for me, the quality is not remotely better via torrents, that's just literally the only option for what I want to watch.
[1] Apparently different formats actually run at different speeds, causing the subtitles to drift if they were made for a different format. I didn't want to know about this and if the media industry had provided me some way of consuming this content I wouldn't have had to learn about it.
You're an edge case, so I don't think your situation is particularly instructive when considering the industry as a whole.
But in case you didn't already know, you can obtain subtitles separately, from sites like Open Subtitles and Subscene, then sync them to your video. I use Subtitle Editor[0]. Although it's Linux only, I'm sure there's similar software for other OS's as well.
I appreciate that I'm an edge case, but I'm not the only person who behaves this way.
As far as your other info, thanks for your help. I do, however, already know all this. Believe me.
Syncing to your video is a very hit and miss process. It's not a matter of just pointing the app at the two files and let it sort them out. What if the original version included more of the credits? It can be a huge pain. VLC makes it easier by letting me increase/decrease subtitle delay as it starts to drift out of sync.
This isn't the case for me. I watch mostly "foreign" films (i.e. films in a language I don't speak or understand). If the subtitles aren't included it can be a nightmare to find some (I won't watch dubbed movies). Sometimes you can't find any subtitles at all (I once had a movie sitting on my HD for over a year waiting for subtitles to show up for it), often when you do find them they're out of sync [1] or awful translations written by people who don't speak one (or both!) languages very well. Often whole chunks of the movie will be left out or have one word explanations.
So for me, the quality is not remotely better via torrents, that's just literally the only option for what I want to watch.
[1] Apparently different formats actually run at different speeds, causing the subtitles to drift if they were made for a different format. I didn't want to know about this and if the media industry had provided me some way of consuming this content I wouldn't have had to learn about it.