WIndows 11 Won’t Activate After Replacing 10 and a HW Upgrade

I was happily running Windows 10. I never got asked to upgrade to 11, due to old hardware.  Stupidly, as it turns out, I upgraded my hardware (CPU, motherboard, boot disk) and installed a fresh Windows 11.

When it came to activation, it failed even though I had the key from the old Windows 10 system. After 2 days and 5 frustrating calls with Microsoft support (3 of which they put me on hold and then disconnected) I learned that because my Windows 10 system was an upgrade from Windows 8, that key no longer worked with Windows 11. I even emailed them proof of license purchase from back in the Windows 8 days.

WTF? If I’m faced with paying $200 for Windows 11, I’ll just install Linux. I run Linux on all my other systems but this. I only need Windows for a couple of programs. Blue Iris and Quicken.