Thanks for that link. Honestly. I think an old thing is that I’ve gotten used to convenience and a going through a list like that sometimes doesn’t seem worth the time even though I know deep down that it is.
I'm so goddamned sick of Microsoft and its greedy bullshit. I just looked at a recent KB update from them and the article must have breathlessly mentioned the word "subscription" 50 times.
After years of being a MS corporate stooge type, I finally started messing around with LibreOffice. It can read MS Office files. Check it out if you haven't already.
Half joking.
Pirated apps are sometimes sketchy, but you can get older versions of things that just worked.
Alternatively there's Linux and the open source world, which has never let me down.
I don't think you can "own it" in the traditional sense, but I'd be ok with a software purchase being a perpetual license for the specific version you purchased.