One of the best thing to do is to pirate almost all of your music and then reward the creators by going to their shows, buying them shirts or even CDs (you can also rip physical copy if piracy is not a thing)
I totally agree with your point of view, I was talking to buy stuff to use it. When sending money I usually just gives some money to the group at the end of the show by hand
Ohh sorry if I make myself misunderstood but I really listen and go live to small to medium groups so I can definitely to this, but maybe you can't, no problems online (or IRL) donations are the solution