you pigeonhole surfers to an extreme
what's to say that those who don't pay are not doing it because they can't or won't pay but because of DRM or because they can't get that one scene they like from so and so porn video?

the tube sites are a lot about instant gratification
Obviously those who visit them aren't looking for hi-res videos or those sites wouldn't have much traffic. Looking at their Alexa stats the tubes sites sure have a lot of people looking for short, tiny grainy crap and loving it.

From observing, and talking to people and reading people go to xtube are not looking for the opposite of short, tiny grainy crap

Besides, there aren't many douches left to buy $70 dvds and $40/month memberships. Why porn dvds cost more than a season of Battlestar Galactica is beyond me.

bittorrent is good for instant gratification but if one isn't looking for anything specific chances are it will be trickling slow or not at all since a lot of people download the file and stop seeding. And it won't go away as CBS and others are giving it even more legitimacy by offering downloads/streaming of their shows.

Some even make the argument if anyone is searching for free they weren't going to pay in the first place