Hello the_markm, thanks for reaching out to the QuickBooks Community. We are sorry for any frustrations this messaging has caused you. If you bought QB Desktop and own it outright, then yes you will be able to use it still.

 For clarification, QuickBooks Desktop was discontinued in the UK in June 2023, but there are ex-subscribed users who are still able to use the software. From May, access will no longer be possible on subscribed versions QBDT 2016 and above, though we are urging all users to migrate to another software solution before this date. 

If you purchased QuickBooks outright it should have been clear in the message that perpetual outright licences bought through retail would be excluded from the deactivation and will be able to access the QuickBooks desktop product still. We have brought this up with our head office and the message will be updated.