

I’m in a country where there’s no legal precedent against torrenting, so it’s somewhat safe, but it’s still better to use one anyways. You never know when the laws might change, and it’s best if there’s no record of your IP/timestamp torrenting.
Either way, there’s a risk-reward tradeoff of not using one, but the risk is much higher in the US, and if you’re made an example of, it could be life ruining. You’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth paying to mitigate the risk.
Factorio did it right, IMO. V2.0 as a free update to the base game, launch a paid expansion at the same time.
Wube is pretty much the only developer I have faith in to consistently do things right.