The obvious conclusion imho, is that keygens are the best solution. The great thing with a keygen (unlike *most* patches), is that there's a pretty good chance it will work with subsequent releases of the same app.

Once you have mastered the art of patching, it is definitely worthwhile attempting to try creating a keygen. It helps you learn an awful lot more about reverse-engineering.

Of course, there are times when a patch and a keygen is the best solution. I can remember downloading keygens for SubmitWolf 5.x and the keys they generated all got accepted, no problem. But when it did it secondary online check to see if you were licenced to download the updates/addons it failed. This is why I created a keygen and patch combined, and it worked a treat.

But let's be honest, both methods are worthy ways of allowing free software to proliferate. Do whatever you're comfortable with.