Y'all can debate the semantics all you want, and you are free to complain about confusing documentation and/or the resulting decisions to pay for extended support.
Fact: the Warranty Status section for an out-of-warranty device says this:
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Description: Receive premium technical support via email and phone, from Obihai's Help Desk experts even when your OBi device is not covered by a hardware Warranty.
Fact: the Warranty Status section for an in-warranty device says this:
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Description: Extend your OBi device's warranty to a second full-year and receive premium technical support via email and phone, from Obihai's Help Desk experts.
True, Obihai has done a crummy job explaining what you are or are not entitled to receive, support-wise, on an out of warranty device, but that doesn't add up to malicious intent. Many companies offer extended support for a fee, with self-service via forums and downloads being the alternative. The company didn't promise, as no for-profit company would, eternal free support. In this case, buying the extended warranty provides the services specifically included in that warranty. You're free to read the warranty if you wish --that's your responsibility
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you don't go searching forum messages for the secret firmware urls; then you have no choice but to pay for the upgrade via Extended Support.
This is just forum trolling. Obihai has not hidden or made difficult the task of finding the proper firmware; it's right there on the firmware download section of this forum.
People on the Internet love to bash companies and find nefarious motives for corporate behavior. Thirty years ago, it was IBM-bashing, then Microsoft-bashing, then Facebook and Google-bashing.
It's just irrelevant to actually solving the problem. Empirical evidence trumps speculation. I have a OBi 110, two 200s, a 202 and a 1302. The 110, the 202 and one of the 200s are out of warranty (in fact, the 110 is one of the original-version products dating back to the earliest days of the company). I have tested and proven that, as long as a device is at the current firmware level, it can be added to the OBiTALK portal, and Google Voice can be configured on it. There is no need to downgrade the firmware, nor pay any fee.