Oh, also, PIRATES MURDER PEOPLE SO THEY CAN TAKE SHIT. PIRATES ARE NOT NICE PEOPLE.
I don't see why people would have a problem with this. Are you being serious? From the all caps I'm assuming no, but I have seen people legitimately complain about this. If you are being serious... do you have the same problem with elves from Dwarf Fortress being nothing like Tolkiens? World Builders are able to change how different things are in their world.
I have no issues with DF elves. I might if, say, they had 8 legs and drank liquefied organs, since that's a spider, not an elf.
I dislike any media with something, like pirates, being presented as something else. If I were to read a book about sky pirates, I would expect some air-to-air battles, boardings, murder and looting. If it were about a monkey with an eye patch who lives in a zoo, I would be displeased.
While it's true the author has the right to define a sky pirate as a kind of monkey, if nobody else can make that connection, it's not likely a good idea.
Now, as for FF12, my main issue is that Vaan, a tooth-achingly good person, keeps wanting to be a pirate.
To me, this would be the same if you replaced pirate with mass-murderer. The logic fails somewhere.
Now, it would be ok if he just started out like that, since it's possible he is an idiot.
But he never gets the memo. This pretty much ties back into the null character development in the party.
Hell, they have a GBA sequel game where he is a Sky Pirate, yet no acts of piracy are involved. Ever.