On my system, I have two accounts. The administrator account and the "user" account without admin privileges. From my security experience, I always use the user account to run everything. What I didn't know was that COUATL requires full admin privileges so that you don't get the dreaded "GSX has been disabled at this airport due to user setting."
Couatl doesn't need any admin permission to run, this is not the problem.
The problem is the FSDT Installer surely needs admin permissions because it must install libraries required to work and verify some settings and set some permission that won't work without admin permission.
The real issue is, the FSDT Installers is what does the Activation, and the activation is by-user so, when you are activating from the FSDT Installer, you are the administrator, but when you **run** GSX in the sim, you are another user, which is running without a license.
So yes, even if running Couatl as admin might have "fixed" the problem for you (of course, now the user that runs Couatl is the same that used the Installer to activate), that's not the best solution, because we noticed side effects when doing this.
A better solution is, instead, activate your regular user instead, as explained here:
"
How to Get GSX Pro Working for MSFS 2020 in Non-admin Account"
https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,28730.msg187338.html#msg187338