As other people pointed out, even if everyone was to stop pirating not much would change as the main income for the animation studios comes from DVDs, Blu-Rays and merchandise. Considering how anime stuff is pretty dead in the majority of the western world and what is present is laughably bad and overpriced, we don't really get any change besides, well, not being able to watch anime anymore.
Those services like Crunchyroll, while they are a great idea and definitelly help the studios, don't have all anime one would want. Their offer is limited and requires you to pay. Piracy on the other hand offers all anime you could think of at no price at all.
Now one could argue wether the lack of western interest is caused by the lack of Japan's investing or is it the lack of interest in the west that caused Japan's lack of investing, but regardless of how you look at it, a big number of anime dubbing companies have gone bankrupt. Merchandise is rare to find. You won't find anime broadcast on TV and legal internet services have a skrewed offer.
Theoretically, if all anime fans were to start paying for services like Crunchyroll, it still wouldn't be enough to change things seriously because we would still be lacking in the other departments.
As for piracy, there are a lot of reasons for why we shouldn't pirate stuff (besides the obvious arrests that may ensue) such as malicious software we gather through torrents and lack of respect for the hard work people invest into making the medium. The problems range from technical to moral but are really relative.
In the end, the only way to actually help the animation studios make better anime is by investing a LOT of money in all the stuff that comes out for our fav shows. That however is very unrealistic so the best case scenario would be we all start buying episodes, which is again a hard hit for many as they cost more then one would be willing to pay.
