Yes there are two different things going on. Both seem a bit drastic and neither a good deal for the customer.
The issue is that there is no guarantee the legacy devices will work properly over time according to the email notice I got.
Continue using legacy products
You can continue using legacy products after May, but your system will no longer receive software updates and new features. Over time this is likely to disrupt access to services and overall functionality.
So eventually a perfectly good expensive "premium" speaker system that certainly worked fine previously will maybe not continue to function as expected effectively rendering it useless. When will this happen? Who knows? Next year? When Sonos CEO decides he needs a new swimming pool? They are doing their customers a major disservice here and have already lost a bunch of goodwill and trust judging by the reaction.
Sonos appears to be for suckers at this point - of which I now feel I am sadly one. 
I am sooooo glad I returned the one I had about a year ago. I thought it was too expensive for what is was and 3 years and they're telling us it's obsolete and at that price !
Well all I have to say is FARK you sonos, not in my house, and now not ever.
On the flip side - Sonos just works (for now haha). Easy to set up, easy to configure and control and the sound to my aging non-audiophile ears is great.
am so very very disappointed.
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Has anyone built a HEOS integration yet? The API seems pretty straightforward http://rn.dmglobal.com/euheos/HEOS_CLI_ProtocolSpecification.pdf
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I looked into that recently and couldnât find anything. Iâm really hoping someone will write an integration, since I donât know anything about coding but it does seem pretty straightforward for someone who knows what theyâre doing.
Maybe with people jumping ship from Sonos there will be more of an interest in HEOS integration with HE.
If I get bored I might play around with it this weekend.
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I will gladly send some beer money your way to keep things more interesting while working on it! 
Lol. Iâve found alcohol + programming doesnât always yield the best results.
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I donât have a Sonos. What commands does it actually support? Trying to see what a feature for feature heos integration would take to build.
Funny how people get all up in arms about plastic straws and climate change, but when it comes to e-waste, they are like "meh".
Semiconductors are awful things in landfills, they are chock full of lovely things like arsenic. Add in some electrolytes from the capacitors, and a hunk of petroleum based plastic, and we have a lovely brew of potential groundwater contamination.
How can a company ethically promote bricking a working product, and even worse force you to remove a working product to receive updates on other products? That is almost like blackmail or extortion or something.
Sad situation.
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I'm just going to switch to Moode. Max2play and volumio are another couple of good ones. Build them all with a Raspberry pi.
or sometimes the BEST results!
I would love to see someone ask Ikea for a response about letting their customers know, that the SYMFONISK bookshelf and table lamp that they bought in time will be considered "legacy" and no longer receive software updates and new features.
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Just got this in an email from SONOS:
"We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:
First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work just as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products wonât get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that canât be addressed, weâll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes youâll see in your experience.
Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. Weâre finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.
While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when theyâre excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. Thatâs the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.
Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that youâll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn't exist and weâll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day."
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Sounds like a car lease program
Just got the same email..
Methinks Sonos miscalculated the reaction they'd get - speakers unlike cell phones have a much longer active life. Interestingly I feel the same way about IoT products especially hubs. 
I am still annoyed about buying from Sonos and then having parts of my system declared "old" after ONLY 3 years. If you are going to buy Sonos only buy in the first year of release otherwise your devices will deprecate that much faster it seems.
Nowhere do I see that this wont happen to these "modern" devices - The Play:5 Gen 2 was released in 2009..
I guess maybe I could understand if there was a compelling argument to replace the entire platform due to intractable issues etc.. but they did a really poor job of explaining that - I dunno about others but I have been mostly happy with the system over the (3) years so what could they possibly need to do?
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Same. I've been mostly happy with Sonos.
This email and subsequent semi-retraction does leave a sour taste though.
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What ticked me off was that I was happy with the functionality I had when I first bought my Sonos gear. I did not need or want any of the "new features" that they added. Most of those "new features" were streaming deals that would require me to purchase a subscription (I'm sure Sonos would get a cut). So I can't justify their argument that the hardware can't support it - all I want it to support is what it did when I bought it. I hope they have seen the light. I won't hold my breath. I also will not be selling any of my old "legacy" sound equipment that is still working well after 30+ years (thank you Denon and Sansui).
My opinion is that they didn't have a good handle on where the market was going and didn't plan for and engineer for the kinds of services that they feel are needed to compete today. In short, they blew it due to poor planning. It's not easy - I get it.
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I hear you!!! The UI is STILL a mess after they replaced it..
I wonder when they will start charging us for the benefit of using our own (haha) speakers?
correction they are charging us via the "trade-up" plan..
