No Compulsion In Religion- Threat Of Punishment
I don’t know if the Arabic word allows for that interpretation
I asked this to Ghamidi sahab in the February QnA and he answered similarly to you. That the time for thinking and repentance ends after itmam ul hujah is completed. So as you said, they have full freewill to act. We accept islam with free will- we are not being forced- even though we have the punishment of hell hanging over us. We are accepting it with freewill. The same thing is with the Quraysh, but their punishment just occurred earlier in this world