IMO its fine for vendors to abandon their products but they should be required to release all technical documentation and software used with the device into the public domain so enthusiasts can continue where companies stopped.

Here, you lost something: \

Not engineer.

At least here in Germany, engineer is a protected profession. Other than that: All of the above.

Suddenly? It’s been labeled Chinese spyware since day one.

Same situation here in Germany, where companies are worried about attracting skilled foreign workers while right-wing extremist parties are gaining more and more votes.