How is "theft vs copyright infringement" just a "meaningless difference"?? Stealing takes something away from person A to benefit person B. Copyright infringement just...benefits person B - nothing is taken from person A.
The better car analogy is if you steal a car from me, I no longer have a car, but if you take a detailed 3D scan or photo of my car, I still have it. Of course car analogies are terrible. A library book is better: if I borrow a book and don't give it back, nobody can borrow it again and the library needs to buy a new one (theft), but if I borrow it, make a photocopy and then return it, other people can also borrow it.
The only way you can make it sound like stealing is using the "lost sale" logic, but if the sale isn't guaranteed, it's still "less" than theft, and many studies have shown that the sale to a pirate isn't even close to guaranteed.
I've talked to a lot of pirates over the decades and there are very few "lost sales" - something like 80% of the file sharing population are either "never going to buy it anyway" or "I have a paid copy which I have backed up and enjoy sharing".
The peak pirating years for Australia (when per capita the country dominated the file share numbers) were when digital copies of games, music, films were being marked up at 25% to 50% over the (after currency conversion) sale prices in the US and EU.
After some years of unabated piracy the Australian prices dropped to match the rest of the world and piracy rates receded to just ticking over, sustained by the technical types that enjoyed the process as much if not more than the content.
Copyright infringement is a pushback counter pressure against eye gouging over zealous pricing.
The better car analogy is if you steal a car from me, I no longer have a car, but if you take a detailed 3D scan or photo of my car, I still have it. Of course car analogies are terrible. A library book is better: if I borrow a book and don't give it back, nobody can borrow it again and the library needs to buy a new one (theft), but if I borrow it, make a photocopy and then return it, other people can also borrow it.
The only way you can make it sound like stealing is using the "lost sale" logic, but if the sale isn't guaranteed, it's still "less" than theft, and many studies have shown that the sale to a pirate isn't even close to guaranteed.