I found that too, but how would that affect me in terms of product keys? like, how could a product key be released before it's released to the public, and how would that prevent me from reactivating? that's the confusing part.

this is the only, one and only entry, that I  could find. Generic Volume License Key (GVLK) is used when you want to use for instance KMS for Windows license management. GVLK keys are publicly available on the internet, but should not be used without a central license management service running.19 Sep 2014
gvlk? Windows 8.1 questions! - Forums - CNET

The only thing I can think of relating to keys and volume is volume license keys. These are keys issued to large corporations so that they can install and activate Windows on all of their computers without needing to have a single unique key for each machine.

In answer to why it won't activate, If that key is freely available over the internet, Microsoft may have marked it as invalid in such a way that existing installations will continue to work, but new installations won't activate.

Volume license keys don't expire unless Microsoft chooses to expire them itself.

Keys for prerelease editions do expire, but they usually expire on the date the product is released, not years later.

None that I can think of. Usually if a key won't activate over the internet, it will give you a number you can call to activate Windows manually.

if you see the gitHub link I posted, these are the public 8.1 keys, which shouldn't activate in the first place at all. so I'm honestly not sure how my school was able to activate it.
as for post 11, there's an error when I try to activate, I can post the error code if it helps. I may ask if microsoft can help, I can give them my product ID, but no clue if they're willing, since it's not running the latest and greatest.

so here is where we currently stand. I get 0x8007232b when trying to activate.
contacted Microsoft, more specifically, the disability desk, since everything else just sent me back to articles. the guy told me to call the volume license service, but since the number in question is paid, and since the laptop is not under my name, and since, it's highly unlikely that they'd fix it, I didn't. then I went over to Samsung, the guy kept telling me to boot into the Samsung recovery solutions, even though I told him my recovery partition is long since gone. I didn't even get into the topic of my screen having shattered internally a while back, in other words, you can't see anything at all, but in short, those guys can't give me my original OEM key based upon my serial number. so I think I'll just settle with win10 on the thing, unless anyone knows of anything, and I'll see if I can snap up another 8.1 from somewhere. there are still issues like the NVDA UI issue, for example, not to mention file explorer lagging for no reason every now and then, which prevent me from going win10  full time.
so yes, this was a fun morning. at least these online chat services are pretty accessible, much to my surprise.

that's where I looked first, apparently the sticker is so warn off, not even the Microsoft logo can be made out of it... as for the product key, can we still trust these sellers selling keys? I mean, I'd try it, but not sure if they're reliable.
win10 doesn't really lag, in fact, it's quite snappy, but the OS itself, I don't find as responsive, regardless of PC, hardware, or setting. like, NVDA says settings, instantly, then 2 seconds later, I land in the search box. file explorer, is known for lagging. it's just things alike, that I'd rather stay away from, least for now. but win10 is almost as bad as win7, in terms of memory management, at least, it's nowhere near 8, based on my experiments.

hi mister braille. i'm sorry buddy, but you out of luck. your key is not valid.
volume licence keys do. * not. expire. if this key has been on this laptop for years. and now its suddenly telling you that its expiring, and if you saw this key on the internet, it does mean, you have to obtain a new key.
sorry but that is the short and sweet.
i have one option you can try that mite, just mite work.
apologies if you did try this and did not mention this. when it gives you the error. use the option in sted of activating online. use the phone option, instead. there's a long set of codes you have to type in to the microsoft phone system. and it will generate a activation ID for you that you type back in to the wizard. i've had some odd issues before. that the phone system saved me from.. it had to do with reinstelations before the MS account days. and i tried to do it, to soon after each other causing, the activation server to freeck out.
there was good reasons for me dooing so. but the online server did not wanna here about it. the phone system saved me there.
I hope this helps. but, as I said, the fact your key is on the net, is not a good thing.

If you aren't in the US, the option to activate by phone may not be available to you.

That sounds odd, as far as I know, Freedom Scientific has always allowed activation on up to three machines. I deal directly with Freedom Scientific, if you have to go through a local dealer, they might have different arrangements.