I only included the bit about piracy as I know that tends to be a concern to folks on this forum. I personally couldn't care less about piracy in general, especially as it relates to retro gaming; I primarily buy originals as I am an enthusiast/collector, but I do support the existence of flash carts for a variety of reasons. Thus, the whole argument about buying to support developers (and it doesn't matter when it comes to used software) isn't really an issue here.
The issue is you're wasting (yes, wasting) money and storage space on your shelf for repro carts when you can just buy a $50 flash cart and play every hacked/translate/dindie ROM you like. You can then use the money you saved to buy legitimate carts instead.
You're also destroying original carts in the process. Yeah, yeah, I know, no one is going to miss NHL '94, but, there are many cases in which games people actually want get destroyed to create repro or bootleg carts, notably when it comes to the Neo Geo AES, and the NES.
If "vanity/artwork/display" comes into play, well, buy SFC carts, because, not only are they cheaper, they look a shitload better on display than SNES carts do.
Purchasing repro carts just makes zero sense to me, no matter how you try to rationalize it.
My two cents.
it's not like i/other don't get what you (or specifically drizzle) are saying here, but it's so subjective a question that i find it weird someone's asking it. it's like me saying "YA'LL PAYING CIB FOR GAMES WITH MANUALS WHERE NO DEVS MAKE MONEY ARE CHUMPS" - why should i assume you guys have the same priorities?
everyone here knows if they buy say Metroid: Ice Metal or Earthbound Zero with the english patch on an NES cart, it's not legit. some of us just think it's cool & worthy of having on one's shelf, like it's own piece of art - and it's neat being able to play shit on your actual NES or soon Retron 5. Moralizing things about many properties/companies long dead doesn't even come to play for me.
but then i just bought an asian bootleg of MUSHA for $15 because i loved that game as a kid, and $300+ sometimes is ridiculous. would i replace it with a legit one if i got a deal on it one day? sure, but it's still just a vanity. there's tons of people who see this thread and ask why the lot of us just don't emulate, for example. to each their own.