I didn't get a yeah or nay! I got NO response
I got a response - unfortunately, it was "nay". I was thanked for my understanding (which I had not offered) and I was told that it was a "business decision" "taken at the last moment" to include z3ta+ and that was why there was no opportunity to stop people from wasting their money paying the full price for it days before the S7 launch.
I protested that I thought that Cakewalk was not dealing fairly with its customers here. In principle, willingness to discount for people who had bought S6 in the run-up to the launch of S7 is exactly the same as willingness to recognise recent independent purchases of the now-bundled soft synths. CW has not even given me the courtesy of a reply to that, which leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
I think CW has a split personality. The product and technology team could not be more engaged and positive, as exemplified by the contributions of Noel and others to this forum. The CW on-line store and CS group could not be more different. I find it unresponsive and unhelpful, and with a degree of arrogance that I find distasteful, which is not helped by the frequent systems and process screw-ups that cause frequent comment in this forum.
You shouldn't feel like a cheapskate for asking - CW should consider itself deficient for failing to respond to perfectly reasonable points and questions from its customers.