SharePoint SE: Unable to Join New WFE Server Due to License State Mismatch

Hello Community,

We're unable to join a new SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) WFE server to an existing farm.

Environment

• SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
• Existing farm build: 16.0.19725.20384
• New server build: 16.0.19725.20384
• English (1033) and Hindi (1081) language packs installed on both servers
• KB5002873 installed on both servers
• Farm was migrated from SharePoint 2016/2019 to SharePoint SE using the supported database attach method

Issue

During PSConfig, the server fails to join the farm. ULS logs show the failure in:

SPFarm.EnsureCurrentServerProductsMatchFarmProducts()

The current server cannot be joined to this farm because the set of installed products does not match the products installed in the farm.

The license state for the current server doesn't match the farm's license state.

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What we've verified

• SharePoint build versions match (16.0.19725.20384)
• Microsoft.SharePoint.dll versions match
• Get-SPProduct -Local output matches
• Language packs match
• KB5002873 installed on both servers
• Config DB Versions table shows successful upgrades through 16.0.19725.20384

Has anyone encountered a similar license-state mismatch when adding a new server to a SharePoint SE farm, particularly one migrated from SharePoint 2016/2019? Any guidance on additional licensing checks performed during SPFarm.Join() would be appreciated.