No no, you're mistaken. He didn't quit. He was just suspended those few times. but I can see why you think he might of retired though, between suspensions and barely ever fighting, he's had some downtime in his career.
What other option does Jon have but to retire now? He's going to defend his HW belt against someone else other than Tom again? No. He will bitch out and retire rather than test himself. Jon's not retiring because there isn't money to be made or easy opponents for him to fight. It is because he will have positioned himself on a collision course for Tom and there will be no avoiding that fight now. It would not be the first UFC HW he's avoided like the plague.
Jones had no problem fighting Old Man Cormier. He's super fucking horny to fight Old Man Miocic. Jones unequivocally believes he is the absolute best of all time and acts like a thirsty bitch if any other fighter gets any kind of credit... but he just needs to cheat and hold all the advantages against his opponents to make it a fair fight in his eyes.
DC at 35-38 is one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Ngannou, aspinall, nobody in the HW division presents the same challenge that DC did. Except maybe Cain at his absolute best.
If DC didn't move down out of respect for Cain, there's a good chance DC would be known as the greatest HW of all time.
There's no indication that either Ngannou or Aspinall can truly wrestle an elite level. There Is plenty of evidence otherwise, however.
Comparing them with the caliber of fighter and challenge that DC presented in multiple facets of the game, including fight IQ which could be compared to the level of Jones himself is just comically bad analysis.
The HW division is nowhere near as good as people like yourself seem to think it is, except for a select few outliers throughout history who had the well rounded skillsets to be considered amongst all time greats and there's no real indication that Tom is one of those guys.
Perhaps Tom beats this older version of Jones who's been competing for 16 years. Very few people who understand anything about this sport think Tom could overcome Jon's tool kit and fight IQ during his prime.
He wouldn't get past DC either. Or Cain.