They plan to have the ability to "segregate" old equipment new equipment on the same system so old will not be updated, and new will get updated... That could mean two separate systems that operate independently of each other... In the same house.

"Stale" sonos systems will operate fine... Until the Pandoras, Spotifys, and SXM's of the world update their systems... Then what?

What about systems that have a stale connect amp serving as surrounds with a playbar?

It seems that the "old" sonos connects and Connect Amp's that will be going stale are the ones that have the blue rubber on the bottom, the blue label in back, and the old sonos logo on the front. Right around 2015 they switched to the new logo with the gray rubber on the bottom and gray label in back... I'm guessing that is the "change over" point.