The idea of pantone is there is indeed a representation of that color in various color spaces, there is definitely a RGB value used to represent that pantone color. The idea of a pantone license is that people need to pay to say something is a pantone color.
I do not know this for a fact, it is only speculation -- but if the license ran out, Photoshop would probably be violating some intellectual property law by converting that pantone color to it's representation in RGB on a screen.
stampylives t1_j1vr9cv wrote
Reply to ELI5: How is that Pantone colors don't have direct RGB counterparts? by ExternalUserError
The idea of pantone is there is indeed a representation of that color in various color spaces, there is definitely a RGB value used to represent that pantone color. The idea of a pantone license is that people need to pay to say something is a pantone color.
I do not know this for a fact, it is only speculation -- but if the license ran out, Photoshop would probably be violating some intellectual property law by converting that pantone color to it's representation in RGB on a screen.