The logic behind this eludes me. Does a person suddenly cease being him/herself when they fail to renew their driver's license? The validity of the license is only needed to prove one's right to operate a motor vehicle. Who the heck cares about some artificial "expiration" for purposes of proving one's identify?

It seems to me that an expired license would have a greater possibility of being used by someone it doesn't actually belong to. From my college days I had friends that would use expired licenses from friends over 21 to allow them to get into bars.