To the OP: this is extremely well written. It explains something crucially important in a very measured style. I saw your update .. please do not be disheartened about people picking nits. If you read comments to other popular posts, you'll observe that we sometimes ignore the main theme go to great lengths picking some nits to infinitesimal bits.

I bought MS Office Professional some 15 years ago. Having been bit by other vendors, I bought the disks. There is nothing on them that the license is for X years (or maybe there is, .. if so, very well hidden in legalese). Now, the company has been going to great lengths to force me to get a later version and pay them a monthly rent. I do not need it, and already paid for the license for what I use. So I will continue to use Windows 7 or 10 or whatever. I am close to putting together a Linux laptop. I see that Consumer Reports has asked that enshittifier to keep supporting Windows 10. One can only hope. I too, while paying my dues to America, will start to look elsewhere. Thank you.