I can see where you're coming from, and your sentiments are noble, but your arguments are fundamentally flawed, because you're only looking at the way piracy affects the "suits." (For the purposes of my argument, I'm going to keep referring to a nonspecific "you" when I refer to pirates. I'm not making any accusations)
You say you'd rather give the money directly to the developers: Nothing's stopping you. You could do a little research and send a nice letter with a check in it to your favorite programmer or artist, and actually back your words up with action. The fact that this doesn't happen just tells me that you're cloaking your laziness and selfishness in idealistic anti-capitalism. Furthermore, by buying a game, you are giving money to developers, artists, programmers, beta testers, etc.: The money that a video game company makes allows it to hire and retain talent. Yes, most of the profits are concentrated in the "suits" and that sucks, but the people doing all the work willingly signed on with the company. They got hired, signed a contract, and put long hours into what they produce, in order to make a living. By pirating a game, you pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you're not giving money to suits that don't need it, but you're also taking money away from EA/Bioware (or whoever) employees that live on budgets, have kids and mortgages, and who are saving for their retirement. You also harm other gamers who play by the rules and actually purchase games, because developers are forced to place blanket restrictions/protections on their games in order to protect their investments, or, in a worst case scenario, they begin to develop their titles for console platforms which are at least perceived to be more secure than PCs. We all know our general feelings on consolization and DRM, and it is simply common sense that DRM, at least, wouldn't exist as it is now if people weren't stealing games. I'd be willing to bet that there'd be more PC exclusive titles, as well.
If you don't want to pay top dollar for a video game when you're worried about its quality, or if you've been repeatedly burned by a developer/publisher with their recent title releases, might I suggest waiting until the title is less expensive, more reviews have come out, and all of the bugs have been worked out of it? Maybe stop buying the product entirely? This is an argument that I hear time and time again from pirates, and I see a lot of ego-centrism in their reasoning: The only thing keeping them from buying the game at a later date is their desire for instant gratification. Case in point: I played The Witcher back in 2008, and I hated it, mainly for the writing. The parts that I could understand were so poorly written that I just couldn't keep up an interest in the game. I also took issue with some of the game's attitudes toward women, but I digress. When the Enhanced Edition came out, I heard a lot of good things about it, but since I had already purchased the title, I wasn't going to spend another $30 US on it. Instead of stealing it, I just waited for a sale, and I got it for about fifteen bucks. I haven't played it yet, but even if it still sucks, it's not like I blew the bank on it.
And while I'm on the point, we're not entitled to be able to play the game in its entirety before buying the game and finding out it sucks, just like we're not entitled to drive a car for 25,000 miles to find out whether or not the transmission is any good, or whether or not there's a manufacturer recall on it. Video games and music seem to have a lot of this "I just steal it to see if I like it, and then I buy it" mentality. The fact that I'm calling shenanigans on that argument notwithstanding, there isn't a business on the planet that is successful under that kind of warped honor system. If you've purchased a few titles from Bioware that didn't live up to your expectations, then either wait until subsequent titles are cheap enough to waste money on, or don't buy them at all.
So, as much as I can understand how one could convince themselves that piracy isn't harmful, or that it's some kind of socioeconomic statement, I don't buy it, because there hasn't been a single argument I've heard yet that holds up to any kind of critical thinking. Not paying for what someone else has produced, especially when it comes with a price tag, is theft, no matter how someone tries to justify it. Now, depending on what is stolen, and who stole it, we can argue whether the crime was moitvated by greed or self preservation. In the case of software piracy, the simple fact that you can't eat or drink a download, or cover yourself with it to escape the harshness of the elements, leaves only one possible motivation: greed. Which, of course, makes any argument demonizing the greed of Corporate America incredibly hypocritical.