“The software became abandonware circa 2009 when it ceased to be offered, and while the software binary has been archived, to date there has been no effort to restore the functionality once available with a free licence.”
The licence was free. The vendor just stopped offering it. Now the only way to use software people were given at no cost is to take apart a Delphi binary in Ghidra. DRM outlives the product and punishes only the people who followed the rules.