Lurker here.
I still use torrents and find them valuable. I have a mid internet that can't stream ultra HD video - For the best video quality, I need to torrent.
Torrents are not piracy, and I don't know why you should value the opinions of people who make that conflation. It would be like pandering to the TAS = Cheated Video crowd. There's no compelling reason to base your decisions on misinformation.
As somebody else pointed out, especially because this site depends on ROMs, which are also incorrectly conflated with illegal activities. I don't think TASvideos will shake stigma around piracy so long as they make movies using ROMs and emulators (which will be Forever).
I understand TASvideos isn't here to change the world or anything lol, but I think there's power in asserting that torrents are legal and a normal thing to partake in. It's just a good thing to do.
I also strongly dislike the idea of depending almost entirely on YouTube.
The browser feature of resuming problem downloads is hugely unreliable in my experience. It works sometimes but its an inconsistent strat. Torrents can be reliably resumed later.
However, I don't have an answer to the data storage problem. If seeding a huge amount of data is too taxing, and you need to cut torrents for that reason, I understand.