It's not marketing, it's tech.  In order to communicate between devices, the firmware on all devices in the system must be able to recognize all other devices.  Since the Roam didn't exist when S1 was frozen, and S1 doesn't have the space to add new devices, there is no way to support the Roam on S1.

it’s a question of “how many new features can we add to devices that have no available space on their computer memory” . The answer in that case was to split the devices into two operating groups, running two operating systems, S1 and S2. The old devices remain functional on S1 without needing to use extra and unavailable memory. The newer devices, that have space for additional OS data, are able to run S2, and get new features. Sonos “froze” S1 so that all of the older speakers would continue to work without issue, while providing S2 to allow newer devices to get newer features. At least they just didn’t say “all old devices no longer function” and brick everything. 

Think of it this way. Could your original version of your iPhone run the current version of iOS? No, there’s just not enough space on it. Similarly, could a ‘386 PC run today’s version of windows, or Microsoft Office? No, there’s neither the CPU or the memory needed to handle the change in that software. 

There’s multiple threads about this.This is not a new debate, and has been hashed over multiple times,  particularly here. . 

I had to recycle a perfectly functional cellphone because the cell towers supporting it have been turned off. And, there are some new WiFi features that the newer phone cannot access because the hardware to do this had not yet been announced at the time I purchased the new phone.

This is the tech world that we live in. Yes, marketing follows trends. If they don’t follow the trends, the company is dead because no one will purchase the ‘old’ products.

In your specific case, you should probably return ROAM and stick with your current components. By the way MOVE is an S1/S2 compatible portable speaker. You’ll be good for many years with your current equipment. If there is a failure in the future, I’m sure that there will be many hundreds of replacement units available on eBay, being sold by users who upgraded. Eventually, I suspect that your phone or its operating system will be updated and no longer support S1. You can prevent this by not updating the phone, however, this strategy might eventually break down (as it did for me) because the older phone operating system will not support newer applications that are mandatory for work.

What new features?  Still plays music from a variety of sources and connects to media devices?   The importance is Sonos has turned it’s back on the user base.  You know, the customers who decided to invest in Sonos and launch them to where they are?  Remember us. 

If there is no way to support new devices on S1 due to memory constraints, what exactly do you want them to do?  You can't magically add support for future devices to hardware designed over 15 years ago.

This topic has been endlessly covered, and good reasons given, a thousand times in the last two years. Enough already.

Btw, of the speakers listed in your profile, only the gen 1 Play:5 is definitely incompatible with S2, because it has only 32MB of memory.  The Play:1, Play:3 and Playbar all have more memory than this, and sufficient to operate under S2.  The Connect may or may not be compatible with S2, depending on when it was made (before or after a memory upgrade). You could not possibly be more wrong in suggesting that this was a marketing decision.  It was technical.

And here

And here

Amen to that.