Ya the auth process is something that really sells me on Sonar over a lot of other products. I get real tired of the audio industry idea of "Oh just get a special USB dongle and screw around with kernel mode drivers to have our program work!" It is annoying, problematic even though they like to claim it isn't (for example iLoks had problems with USB3 chips) and of course you know that people who pirate it don't have to deal with that.
I'm a big fan of an easy system like Sonar has, particularly combined with nice easy downloads from the CW store.
I also have a feeling that a good setup like that may decrease piracy. I mean when a program have aggressive copy protection, you can have a situation where pirates have a better experience than legit users. However here? Not the case. You can download your software any time you need from a fast server, all the info to authorize is right there in the same spot, no whining or hoop jumping. Being a legit user gives you a better experience.
It's something I hope more companies get on board with.