According to discussion in the other thread, they are having to kill echo speaks because it is using way too many resources and it is making the entire platform unstable. So they feel they don’t really have a choice on that one. The EchoSpeaks Author is working on a new “echo speaks light“ version right now. You can see that discussion in the echo speaks thread. Look down near the end of the thread for the current discussion.
https://community.smartthings.com/t/release-echo-speaks-v3-actions/173073