Question
My question in more details:
are peer-to-peer networks still a good strategy to get free publicity around your book, or for testing a minimum viable product? Or are there other ways, more efficient...
Answer
I don't see why it wouldn't still be applicable. Peer-to-peer file sharing has been increasing ~50% ever 5 years since 2008 (source: https://goo.gl/6WN6hU).
There are also now additional tools that you can simultaneously take advantage of. For instance, although e-book reader sales peaked in 2011, there is a huge amount of traffic on the Amazon kindle store. Many authors use Amazon's option to provide a free electronic sample of their book, which I know from personal experience works. I often download free samples and then end up purchasing the book.
best,
Lee