SQL Server Edition upgrade to import new license key stuck - over console

I currently rue the day when I decided to install SQL Server on a Windows Server without the desktop experience. Microsoft really did such a good job with SQL Server on Linux, in comparison, SQL Server on Core is just a nightmare. Anyway, I installed an evaluation version of SQL Server 2019 that expired just yesterday. I have a license and would like to add the new license key. So, as has been stated in many places all over the internet, I'm running the following command setup.exe /q /action=editionupgrade /instancename=NameOfMyInstance /PID=LicenseKey /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS When I run this command, I'm first being informed that a valid key was detected and that I should make sure I have the proper license for it. But that's it, it hangs there and doesn't proceed. I ran the same command again, with progress indication turned on. This is where it hangs:

[...]
Sco: Attempting to connect script
Connection string: Data Source=.\NameOfMyInstance;Initial Catalog=msdb;Integrated Security=True;Pooling=False;Connect Timeout=300;Application Name=SqlSetup

So, to me it seems that in order to proceed with the setup, it really insists on connecting to the database. Which is not possible, of course, since the service is down and cannot be started due to the missing license. I'm at my wit's end. On server's with a desktop experience, this is really easy and works every time, you just run the edition upgrade with the installer, that's it. I'm really not sure what I can do here and any help from someone smarter is much appreciated. EDIT: Yes, it's definitely a problem that it tries to connect. After the timeout of 300 seconds, it complains that it cannot connect to the server and just tries again, in an endless loop.