I agree with you. My earlier point was that a license is not a contract, and shouldn’t be confused with one. My note at the end was that there is also a contrac

I agree with you. My earlier point was that a license is not a contract, and shouldn’t be confused with one. My note at the end was that there is also a contract when you acquire a license through a purchase. The contract is typically of the form “you pay us money, we give you license”. That contract too shouldn't be confused with the license acquired. As you correctly point out, one who sells his only license to a piece of software no longer has a license. If he kept a copy of the software and continues to use it, he is committing an act of infringement. That is the same whether the license is for a term (subscription) or perpetual.