That’s a fair question, and I want to be clear that I’m not claiming infallibility here. There is always room for misinterpretation.
Under normal circumstances I would test this myself, but in this case I’ve chosen not to upgrade firmware or toggle modes that could put me past a point where downgrading is no longer possible. Given how the authorization changes were rolled out, that felt like a reasonable precaution.
My conclusion is based on how the post-1.08 authorization changes were originally introduced, how third-party access was handled at that time, and what Bambu later clarified after user backlash. LAN-only mode did continue, but with explicit caveats attached - including statements that access models could change in the future and that no guarantees were being made going forward.
If there is solid evidence that Orca continues to function exactly as before on current firmware, without Bambu Connect and without relying on grandfathered behavior, I’d genuinely like to see it.
Here are a couple of sources that shaped my understanding, including the original announcement and early reporting before the partial walk-back: