I am not sure whether it is absolutely impossible to renew the visa but that's not the way it's usually done. The regular process is: long-stay visa to enter then carte de séjour that you renew every year until you get either citizenship (if you want that, obviously) or some way to qualify for a carte de résident or at least a carte de séjour with a longer validity.

Once you have a French carte de séjour, you won't need any visa to enter either France or the rest of the Schengen area. The idea is definitely not to hold both the carte de séjour and the visa indefinitely.

Also, originally many long-stay visas had a shorter validity, it's only recently that the "visa long séjour valant titre de séjour" was created, thus eshewing the need to get a carte de séjour for the first year. But the system was designed around the carte de séjour and you are still expected to get one.

I am not sure whether it is absolutely impossible to renew the visa but that's not the way it's usually done. The regular process is: long-stay visa to enter then carte de séjour that you renew every year until you get either citizenship (if you want that, obviously) or some way to qualify for a carte de résident or at least a carte de séjour with a longer validity.

Once you have a French carte de séjour, you won't need any visa to enter either France or the rest of the Schengen area. The idea is definitely not to hold both the carte de séjour and the visa indefinitely.

Also, originally many long-stay visas had a shorter validity, it's only recently that the "visa long séjour valant titre de séjour" was created, thus eshewing the need to get a carte de séjour for the first year and creating this somewhat unusual situation. But the system was designed around the carte de séjour and you are still expected to get one eventually.