Contracts or price agreements are generally effective for a predetermined time span thus waranting a begin/end date pair. A status, on the other hand, is a state of a row of data as of the point in time of entry - not a span. A future date of a change of status cannot be predicted. You could set an end date on a previous row when a new status occurs, but, be aware you are intentionally denormalizing data to simplify retrievals.

Are you allowed to enter a status for a date in the past, before an existing status?

Can you enter a status for a future date?

Are two statuses allowed to be effective and overlapping?

Must there always be a status for any and all points in time for the life of the row from when it was entered up until now?

Are status rows updatable? This can cause serious inconsistencies.