@itsjustme The raise a number of great points:
Basically it's all about the noise from a computer. Fighting is possible but for those who computers aren't their passion, it's not worth the fight. Get a low power single-purpose device with a simple OS and w/o a million processes running that aren't in support of audio(aka. a streamer).
Not to quibble but the other side of this statement:
They also have made it so that you cannot play your own local library unless you have an active broadband internet connection.
That's so they can give you all the fantastic metadata, artist links, biographies etc. For any victims who've ripped CDs in iTunes and lost album art...well Roon is your savior. I'm sure if enough people complain about it, Roon will provide an option to turn off internet connection required, but IMHE, it's a benefit even when listening to my own library. More often than not, their metadata and supplements are better than what's on the files. YMMV Cheers,
Spencer