Sonos keeps playing if your phone moves which is a pretty huge plus, especially if you know people and don't lead a life of solitude. Their hardware also has a wealth of hardware features like analog and digital inputs, zero-delay input monitoring which makes them suitable as TV or computer speakers, the ability to monitor those inputs from any zone, even if you aren't listening to them on the physically attached player, phase-locked multichannel playback, a zero-config self-extending wireless network, multiuser queue management, and twelve years of flawless software support (so far).
The idea that you get the same thing from a raspberry pi, an android, and some hacks is strictly for those valuing their own time at zero.
Wow talk about blowing something out of proportion. The new software comes with new terms. If you don't accept the new terms you keep the existing software. Over time, it is possible that current software sill stop working with e.g. some future Pandora API, and you'll have a choice of either updating your software or foregoing that feature.
I have a Sonos in every room of my house and I've owned them since the very first generation. Sonos has been extremely good about updating the software. The current software still works on the very first hardware, with all the functionality save for a single feature, room-correcting equalization, that requires the newer DSP. This company is the gold standard of ongoing software support for consumer goods and this article is trying to spin the situation in just the perfect way to make the Internet commentariat explode.
The idea that you get the same thing from a raspberry pi, an android, and some hacks is strictly for those valuing their own time at zero.