Wait so it doesn’t detect or do anything to check? It’s just “well you said it was” and is ok with that.

Winamp dumping a bunch or proprietary information on GitHub is a good example of this.

Am I being cynical if I wonder if Ticketmaster just cancelled a number of tickets randomly, just so they can resell those at its new “market price.” Normally I would just assume incompetence or a mistake, but this is Ticketmaster.

I agree, specialized subs are really the only reason to use it. There are enough people on it that niche subjects have sufficient people to keep the communities going. Lemmy does not have that for all subjects (yet.)

Also check what options you have with uni IT. Some unis have student access to paid software or if you are a uni club.

I know what community this is, but is your clubhouse a registered non-profit? They can get 10 business premium licenses that include office at no cost on Microsoft 365. If you are worried about the activator it might be a less worrying route.