"We've now come to a point where some of the oldest products have been stretched to their technical limits in terms of memory and processing power,"
Since when does playing back music files stretch the limits of what these speakers were designed to do? I have invested pretty heavily in Sonos but now realize I would have been better off connecting an Airplay adapter to a traditional sound system...
Playing back music files is a use-case that is antagonistic to their current business model and something they would disable immediately if they could.
Playing back music files has no social component, does not require a mobile phone app, and can be done without generating metrics and personally identifiable information.
Playing back music files is the last thing Sonos wants you to do.
I also have to be on my wifi to talk to my speakers. They don’t need to keep servers running on the internet for me to talk to my speakers.
They have one job.
If they’re requiring internet connectivity for everything control or local-stream powered, they’re absolutely doing it wrong.
Instead, they chose to upgrade all devices until they are maxed out and then turn around to their pioneering customers telling them they need to buy new hardware just so that they can keep development costs low.