@planet_jeroen, I don’t see the license cost being an issue in your 2 situations or am I missing something?
Even with valid licenses, a reinstall might occur. It’s the sysadmins job to have that covered so other personnel can switch to another machine or have a (very) limited downtime (at least not in terms of ‘sending them home and call back when the computer has been fixed’.)
BTW, a distribution option like FOG would be very nice to have to cover such a situation.