What was the blunder?  It helps letting others avoid the same pitfalls.

Well, in this case, I was using outdated information that had not been confirmed. I was under the impression that I could create my assets with the student version of Maya, and then conver them over via LT or Official LISC. This is false. A post in 2016 from a Autodesk employee clearly states that all assets created with the student version have to be recreated. You can not simply import them over and use them from the official versions.

I have a LT sub, but I never work with it (unless doing freelance) because it has some limitations and is annoying to work with. So, all the stuff I created was made with student version and thus cant be used. I am working to raise money for the full version (right now buying month to month)

Things you learn!

This licence as you state it sounds very dodgy, it might be worth double checking with a lawyer. It sounds reasonable to have a licence not allowing you to use the program for commercial work, and to be able to come after you for infringement for using it unlicensed. However, to claim any sort of ownership / rights over what you have created sounds ridiculous.

It would be like stealing a pen, and writing a best selling novel on it, then the pen owner coming after you to sue for the profits from the novel, rather than for the crime of stealing the pen.

Companies often write all sorts of ridiculous requirements on their EULAs, many of which they know full well are unenforceable. I myself ran a website a while back which required a pledge of allegiance to Adolf Hitler.

I don't support using unlicensed or pirated software, but honestly something like this is what just about everyone does who is just getting started or still in school or recently graduated, etc. Using what you can get until you can turn a profit and then actually buy a copy. Unless you jump up in their face about it, they won't go after you - an individual - for this. (Though, as for that pen stealing analogy, in a case like this they actually could go after someone potentially for profits earned using their product, but they wouldn't own any of your content).

When I was in school we exported a bunch of things as OBJ since it has no product-specific information, so it didn't cause that annoying student version popup every single time you open - or save - the file, but obviously the default format doesn't support animation.

FWIW, our artists have switched to using Blender and have gotten decent with it. It's totally free and open-source. You might not find that being used in AAA but in the indie crowd it's pretty big right now. Either way, glad it worked out - remaking things from scratch often has a way of turning out better than it ever was.