That doesn't mean they are going to require you to ship the machine back to them.

(I'm assuming there's tons of people who are going to miss that deadline anyway)

If it's Internet-connected, it might not squeeze without an approved API call from the vendor.

Yes, absolutely, but it can be gutted for parts or rewired to bypass the API. The latter is not straightforward but someone did so in a video posted in these comments.

They might remove the drm as a final act of goodwill

That would be some serious activation DRM for pressing juice, although it does defend their (failed) business model.