"he would shoot these articles down and say 'piracy is bad, and if you need piracy to somehow succeed, you have already failed'"
You're right, he's not doing that. Because he recognises how using the technology and systems of piracy to legally distribute infinite goods can raise the value of scarce goods.
Also, I distinctly remember Mike explicitly saying that he does not condone piracy.
Just to back up my point, here's a post by Mike explicitly saying he does not condone piracy. I know it's an old one, but I couldn't remember the exact wording for a search for a more recent one that I read.
"WHY would a high-profile company like NewEgg knowingly guarantee damage to their good reputation by shipping out fake product?"
I think the somewhat obvious answer is this: They didn't know it was fake.
A company this large cannot afford to be involved in a scam of this nature, it would damage their image beyond repair, and they would lose far more customers - and so more money - than the scam could compensate for.
What is most likely is some individuals at stock or factory level swapped out some legitimate products for their fakes, and then proceeded to sell the stolen goods through other channels.
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