Yes, it's AGPL with source code publicly available, but if you remove that license key check yourself, you have to make it public, effectively broadcasting that you don't pay for software. In a way, it's naming and shaming. The alternative is using the fork of someone else who has done so and complied with the license, but then you're suddenly dependent on some random downstream and who knows what else they have mixed or might mix into it or just give up merging from upstream eventually.