If you play Factorio for 500 hours (most players exceed 1000), the cost is . Compare that to any other entertainment. Spending 6 hours troubleshooting a desync in a cracked version already wasted more value than the game’s price.
Certain community hosts intentionally disable user verification. However, these are often rife with security risks and lack the persistent infrastructure of official servers. Steam Workshop Proxies: factorio cracked multiplayer verified