No sir, I meant Skywave although shortwave works also.
It's not that you can't find pirate shortwave stations, it's that it can be hard to bust them when they operate out of random third-world rat holes.
There are plenty of pirate shortwave (using your term here..) operating right here in the good ol' USA. They're difficult to find because of the way propagation works and how different frequencies and wavelengths bounce off different levels of our atmosphere.
I can operate on 20 Meters for example on 14.250 during the evening hours and my friend 15 miles way cannot hear me. If I move to 7.180, he can hear me, albeit barely. When I then move to 146.445, he hears me loud and clear. Why? Different take-off angles for each signal for starters, followed by one band being basically "line of sight" while the other two bounce off different layers of our atmosphere.
How many residents of Grove Hall are equipped to receive 6.925 at all, much less in sideband? You might reach the same size audience, but it would be scattered all over the world, not concentrated in the Community.
You've accurately summarized the difference between a local FM radio pirate and a shortwave pirate. The shortwave pirate wants to be heard around the world and knows his audience is equipped to receive his signal on whatever frequency and mode he/she uses. That's the challenge of it -- how far can he/she get on a relatively low powered rig? (Without being caught of course...)
I chose 6.925 USB as my example because it's the #1 shortwave (I say skywave, that's how the propagation works) pirate radio frequency. If you're interested in shortwave pirate radio, there are plenty of good resources on the web for where to listen. One of the better "spotter" forums is HF Underground
They can still triangulate a pirate's general location as long as he stays on the air long enough to have an audience. Then, when the black helicopters get within line of sight range, he will be found easily.
The real reason shortwave pirates don't get caught is that nobody cares, as long as the pirate isn't jamming something somebody important (such as DOD or VOA) cares about. And, with the rise of the internet and super high bandwidth undersea fiber optic cable connectivity, shortwave in general is of less and less importance.
I suspect, nobody much cared is also more or less why it took so long to bust TOUCH. But why now?