Zoom rooms soon to be disabled on Meta Portal hardware

[Jim22]

We use a fleet of Meta Portals (10inch and Plus size) in the office. These work marvelously as Zoom Rooms clients and can be easily managed by the admin. I have noted after a recent meeting using one of the devices that a message appeared saying Meta (Facebook) will remove the Zoom app from the device in few weeks on January 31st.

I dug around online and there is absolutely zero information on any upcoming change on Meta's website. However, Zoom has a support page which confirms it.

If this were to happen, the Zoom Room clients would stop operating, correct? I mean, Rooms can't work without the Zoom app, it would seem. It is unclear if this is Meta's decision or Zoom's, but given that the app is set to be "removed" as opposed to simply becoming inoperable hints at Meta's hand. Is there nothing Zoom can do to talk them out of it? It's a 3rd party service, what does the hardware manufacturer care? Does Zoom have another hardware partner offering the same Zoom Rooms touchscreen functionality but who is more committed to their customer than Meta?