You have to go pretty far out there to find shows and movies that aren't on public trackers. I definitely can find gaps if I go looking for them, especially if we start counting not finding a blu-ray rip while a DVD rip is easily found, or not finding a 4K rip but a 1080p one is out there, but for most anything friends would have asked me to dig up, a high quality rip is easily found. Not to mention that once found, it can just stay on a hard drive and be easily retrieved for next time.
The only exception I can think of are local shows, but I don't watch them, specifically because they're only on Actual TV™, which I haven't watched in years, they only recently got onto the local streaming services. They should still be on local private trackers, which I can definitely agree is a hassle, but depending on how bad your local streaming service is, they can definitely a be a tempting prospect.
TFA says they were pirating live sports streams - live content can't be accessed via torrent trackers, obviously.
I personally don't "get" sports, but I understand that people who do, want it to be a shared experience where everyone is watching the same game and feeling the same emotions at the same time. Even ten seconds of extra latency is bad because you can hear your neighbours cheering before you see the goal get scored, and if you were to download and watch the game 12 hours later, the "magic of the moment" would be gone - might as well just google what the final score was.
The only exception I can think of are local shows, but I don't watch them, specifically because they're only on Actual TV™, which I haven't watched in years, they only recently got onto the local streaming services. They should still be on local private trackers, which I can definitely agree is a hassle, but depending on how bad your local streaming service is, they can definitely a be a tempting prospect.