I’m going to guess that the make dependencies are installed explicitly and not as a dependency. You can check the if they are explicitly installed or not with the output from pacman -Qi packagename iirc. If it doesn’t work then try pacman -Qii packagename.

So does yay and/or pacman know that the things I am installing don’t actually depend on the make dependencies?

I’m pretty sure make dependencies aren’t considered dependencies of the package you are installing.

My understanding is they cache the files and lets you download from their servers for faster speeds.

Wdym it’s not on the megathread? it’s still listed as one of the GOAT direct download websites.

Personally I don’t really care too much about whether it’s moral or not. I pirate when I feel like it and don’t when I don’t feel like it. I also pay for some things that I pirated before and enjoyed as long as it isn’t too expensive.

The source code is even hosted on GitHub which is owned by Microsoft.