The License Manager update came a bit (less than 48 hours) after the last SOC update. SOC borked, so I kept running Waves Central hoping for an update (not yet knowing about deleting the "Waves Audio" folder). That's when I got a separate update for the Licensing Engine. And that's when I started having the issue when starting up Studio One for the first time in the morning.
Amazing that "clearing the cache" fixed both problems!
Which will now become my Emergency Repair Procedure #1
Spacehunter
Ship's android
Spacehunter: Wake up! Wake up!
Android: What?
Spacehunter: Comms are down.
Android: What did you do?
Spacehunter: Applied Emergency Repair Procedure #1
Android: You kicked it.
Spacehunter: Yeah.