20 years in, I thought, come on, I mean I work in software, I can easily afford this ($200 or something). So I paid, and felt good about doing so. I don't know why I didn't do it earlier really!
But I was absolutely so used to the 20 years of multiple-times-per-day muscle memory of clicking away the nag panel on startup telling you to pay. So I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it without typing in the registration code, even though I'd paid, so I could get back to the "workflow" that I was used to...