Hi there, regular Steam user here. I've learned of the news early on a few days ago but I finally had the time to read the comments here where the core Sonar users are. I wanted to comment.
I was lucky in a way since I was about to upgrade to the "real" Sonar, having bought Home Studio a year ago and finding its limitations. I was going to spend a lot of money on Cakewalk products.
I think enough people have been expressing their frustrations and I'd like to talk about something else: the future of Cakewalk and Sonar.
I'll be honest here, I don't think another enterprise would be interested in the Cakewalk/Sonar brand. The reason is that it has been going from one owner to another over the years and this low blow given by Gibson, whether you like it or not, diminishes the overall reliability of Cakewalk. To make it simple, all this made Cakewalk look weak. The Cakewalk name couldn't go on because the trauma left by Gibson's mismanagement is too important.
I highly doubt Microsoft would have interests in Cakewalk/Sonar. Expensive software that cost $200 and over will attract only a limited amount of people - people who are doing this as a living or as a very passionate hobby. MS wants to reach a broader audience. Their apps must be appealing to as much people as possible and they must be simple to use. Sonar is too advanced and complex for that. MS isn't the kind of enterprise that strikes me as innovative and daring either. I don't think they'd want to step in that relatively saturated market.
The future of software development lies in crowdfunding. I highly encourage the people at Cakewalk to regroup and come up with a new brand name and make a new yet similar software that they could put on crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter. The loyalty of Cakewalk users would probably reflect on the crowdfunding effort and the team would have complete independence from big companies like Gibson.
In my opinion, it is not viable to give unlimited support for a software like Sonar. It's not a free-to-play MMORPG with DLC and microtransactions. A DAW is not addicting like a MMORPG either and less people will be interested in buying a software like Sonar. Continuous online support on any software that isn't a video game is a very risky thing to do, in my humble opinion. That lifetime pass was too good to be true and did not fit with reality. Not enough customers, not enough monthly revenue = not enough fuel. When Gibson saw that the fuel was starting to come less and less, they pulled the plug.
One option, however, would be to crowdfund your software on a yearly basis once it's been made so the updates can keep going. Wikipedia asks for money every year and they keep going. Patreon is a solid long-term crowdfunding platform once your software is made since it's all about continued support. For those who are unfamiliar with both websites: Kickstarter is a one-time thing to start of with a huge amount of money while Patreon uses a monthly donation dynamic.