I think the idea is to put out a company-approved nagware "trial" version. It makes piracy less likely (because the benefit of a full cracked version is smaller

I think the idea is to put out a company-approved nagware "trial" version. It makes piracy less likely (because the benefit of a full cracked version is smaller) and gives you a sales channel to those who would have pirated it. The downside is, people who would have paid might discover they're quite happy with the trial version.