I think you may have shifted the argument a bit.

We’re not “back to where we were 100 years ago”. Bandcamp exists and pays artists for song purchases. It’s not perfect, and the selection of Bandcamp and the few other services like it are sometimes limited, but there ARE ways to buy digital music and have a non-negligible amount of the money go directly to the artist.

I think you’re trying to make an argument for just pirating digital format music. I would say, don’t just throw up your hands and go straight there by default, try to buy the music first, and then if you can’t or really can’t afford it, then by all means download the music in other ways.