Why would anyone keep paying a license fee for something they are not going to own? Even more importantly these licenses are generally written so that they can terminate your license at any time without any reason and with no refund.
Does anyone actually read the software licenses when you agreee to them -- you're signing a whole lot of things away each time you do.
Is Microsoft Licensing a threat to national security? You bet! What happens if and when one day Microsoft terminates the US government rights to run some or all of any Microsoft software?
Why not own software rather than license it -- it's cheaper to own! If you own the software you use, no one will come one day and stop you from using it for "license violation". Upgrades are generally cheap or free for software you "own" and are not "licensing".
A license is just a piece of paper, a contract, an agreement, something that can be terminated by the other party at any time for any reason. You have no control over the agreement in a software license. Don't be held hostage by software licenses.
Does it make sense to rent something when it is cheaper than one rental to actually "buy" that same item? No it doesn't make sense. Usually the cost of "Free" software is a nominal fee, or even 9 times out of 10 is free. Then you actually own the bits that make up the software which is more than just a license to use a binary only copy which you must be careful how you use it and who you let use it and determines if you can make backup copies of it and if you can share it with friends.
Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually "share" your cool new software with your friends -- I mean legally. Yeah, software sharing happens all the time, but wouldn't it be nice if sharing cool software was legal? Well, it is legal to share "Free" software, software that you own and you can do just about anything you want to with that software.