You’re not the only one, especially with the idea of buying something on a website that isn’t going to stick around. I’m all in favour of supporting the artists, but not through third party hosting sites or scummy publishers.
A lot of artists, especially the mostly online ones, will have a Patreon, Ko-fi or other donation site if you look for it. These sites still take a percentage, but it’s often far less than publishing sites, and way more direct, so you could choose to donate the money for a work and then pirate it if you really felt like supporting them, lol
“If buying isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing” has never rung more true in this era.
So I'm an adult and I work 3 days a week though from home, and spend most of time looking after my special needs daughter while mum works 5 days a week, but she works in a childcare. I'd say we're pretty good with money, but obviously we prefer to use most of it for daughters therapy's and other related appointments. I have the money to buy stories like on lezhin, renta, tappytoon etc. I do sometimes, but I also obviously use mangago and comix to read for free. I'm definitely in for supporting artist, but I can only willingly pay for something I enjoy and I also know these sites won't stay up forever (tapas being an example) and I can't just keep wasting money on said sites if I can't keep the product forever. Same with online games, I choose not to spend too much (like on hsr I'll get the express pass or monthly pass at best. Same with nikke but the 8 dollar pack). If I enjoy a story, I'll definitely go and support the author on the actual paid sites. But I haven't been doing that recently and I don't know how to feel about it. I don't exactly feel bad, but with tapas shutting down I don't really wanna be spending money knowing these other sites can randomly shut down.