What you're describing is just so different from real spam.
Not at all, check this other post of mine on why I think it's still spam: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7621722
I'm curious though - after you give out your email address, which you don't consider "soliciting" in this sense but I do, how do you imagine "soliciting" any specific communication?
Nothing can possibly be 'solicited' under your definition.
I just don't get why you even give out an email address, if anything you get thereafter is still considered unsolicited.
Because you pretty much have to buy anything online nowadays.
My personal solution is to use the '+' trick to give customized emails out to everyone and then to block them at the SMTP level in my /etc/mail/access file if they don't stop sending mails after the 1st unsubscribe attempt.
Do I agree to get emails sent to me from <random company> as long as they're product-related and I'm using their service? Yes I do. Will I mark these as spam? No I won't.
Do I agree to getting promotional emails or reminder emails when I stopped using their service months ago? No I don't. Will I mark these as spam? Yes I will.