If users can't or won't be able to afford it, they will pirate it. This cna be tempered with pricing strategies.
If it can't be purchased, people will pirate it (e.g. region locked games, even w/o localizations, or delayed releases by market) - pricing doesn't matter here - if users can't get it, they will just pirate it, sometimes especially because they know it's going to be released later, and that decision by the studio has made them feel second class.
If it's no longer available (abandonware, game developers that have gone out of business, etc) then people will pirate it. There are lots of platforms that are thriving on nostalgia right now because people want to pay for supported, working stuff. (For example, the resurgence of the Baldur's Gate and related games updates)
Take a look at any $streaming_service threads and you will see that anything that interferes with streaming service catalogs or pricing will yield shouts of "Arr" and people clearly stating they will pirate shows or use gray market streaming sites.
It's anecdotal but I suspect that most folks on this site are more comfortable with pirating movies or music, but often draw the line at video games because it is easier to relate to the development work done to make video games (even though modern blockbusters movies often have a lot of software development associated with them as well).
Plus in 5 years the company might not have the same sales and marketing teams, management or even owners.
I'm struggling imagining who can afford the equipment to run 'the latest tech' but will not be able to afford a game that uses it. I strongly suspect 'the latest tech' is important mostly to the privileged markets.
You might be right about the marketing. A hit game will probably be just as profitable later; maintaining or growing its own hype. The bigger problem I think is for games that are flops. Companies probably want to sell as many copies as possible before word gets out; and greatly staggering releases will result in a lot fewer copies being sold as you suggest.
Tech just doesn't make the gains it used to any more.
Back in the 90's a 4 year old machine would be lucky to even start a new released game, let alone run it at close to max settings.
Indie markets work well with that model though. I've seen many indie games launch English-only and adding translations later on to sell to more users.