I'm not going to say "thank you sir" and reward their shitty behavior by giving them more money.

That's your choice. You know what you should do? You should not watch NBC's broadcast. That's a perfectly valid means of silent protest. Instead, you want to illegally watch a stream that you don't want to pay for. It's not your god-given birth right to be able to watch the EPL live on every weekend.

I also don't view sports broadcasters as a "content creators" so much as a glorified middlemen who spent too much money on the right to have their cameras record the sports game and pass their stupid decision on to us.

I value being able to watch a match in England from the comfort of my home in the US, in real-time. Their installing of cameras and the satellites and the accompanying infrastructure that broadcasts data in milliseconds over the Atlantic is something I value enough to pay the price they ask me to pay for it. I would indeed be saddened if one day I woke up and broadcasters ceased to exist, meaning I could never watch matches in England.

They aren't making any content, or at least any content worth paying for.

They are making content that is worth watching though apparently...

Look, you're welcome to your beliefs. Just know that they make you look like a person who refuses to take any responsibility in life and tries and fails pathetically to justify their shitty behavior.