With the current VFR G not available as a PDF any longer, I have actually seen people rely on past editions of the PDF reasoning that not enough could have changed to warrant buying a new one. You have to say, brilliant side effect in the epic quest to promote safety.
As to why nobody simply scans and shares the document, that is precisely the thing that I never understood in the community of pilots in Australia (assuming that such thing exists, that is). Back in my uni days in Europe, doing things on the cheap was the motto. Not because we were cash strapped albeit many of us were but because we were trying to be smart (at the expense of honesty and exemplary behaviour, perhaps but making money out of students is equally if not more disgraceful). One student would buy a textbook or lecture notes and make copies or a scan thereof for their mates. Everyone would obviously chip in which meant more coffee and beer (or whatever we were on at that time) at the end of the week for everyone. Here in Australia it literally beats me every time the N+1th student pilot buys the exact same textbooks or sample exams as the previous N ones before them instead of just recycling them from previous folks. Not that it surprises me any longer that people tend to spend their money very foolishly at these low latitudes but they will be using their copy for a single exam before tossing it under the bed and repeating the process. It also beats me that flight schools won't purchase a couple of ERSA and charts for the students to take on their flights. You have to love paying that 40% markup on your VTC from the pilot shop when you can have it for free online* or, if you insist on having a paper version, ordering it from the official publisher.
But that's just that fellows. I figured, I might just be the only pilot out there who apparently hasn't bought Aviation Theory Centre or Skylines shares yet.
* If you have trouble displaying the large PDF of charts, PM me and I'll give you a trick or two.