I have also had another email from TP-Link saying much the same thing and asking for MAC addresses and the email address of my TP-Link account. I didn’t go through the forum, just contacted them through their support page saying the new firmware broke HA integration.
The email also said “We are aware that the support of Home assistant is a very useful feature for some customers and our senior engineers are looking into the possible solution.” so perhaps there will be a future option to enable the old local API a bit like Logitech did on the Harmony Hub. It certainly seems like they’re taking HA seriously at least.
Bravo for your community post too, very well written and I bet it made a significant impression!