I had a gap in diving of 20 years. I was always in the water from 15-30 years of age. Then I moved to another country, married, got some kids etc. Diving sort of slipped away. At some point my dear old mom got sick while on Curacao and I had to go overthere and as she was in the hospital I had some time to waiste. I thought about things to do and went diving. I approached a Padi guy, explained my situation and we went diving together. It was my first time with a BCD. Those things didn't exist when we started diving in 1965. The dive went fine, so I did another one next day and that was it.I've been diving since then again, about 50-100 times a year. I stopped logging dives when I was at nr 110.
One of my kids just started last year and did her OW but due to work issues couldn't get around to it and after 11 dives there was a gap of one year. To get going again she took a refresher last week and was happy whit it.
But I did see people on liveaboards, even certified DM's that couldn't put their gear together...
I think the OP would have made me do a refresher after my gap and that would've been fine with me. But there is indeed a grey area...