Perhaps you could be right. I doubt they could retain their reputation for audio excellence in such an environment, though. People who want to listen to audio on earbuds or, worse yet, a phone or tablet’s speakers, do not really care about the quality of sound they are getting. They certainly are not going to pay for it. It’s really a different market.
In any event, it’s a good reason to take care of good equipment. Don’t take the ability to replace that amplifier for granted.
Actually, there are now new boutique manufacturers doing fine cranking out audiophile gear.
And there are many old names that have kept up just fine. Sony wasn’t one of them, but has now discovered that it needs to compete on quality again.
Also worth pointing out that the article itself notes that the Japanese have had huge problems with software/interfaces, which is critical in this time of multimedia receivers. Nobody wants to buy a receiver with 200 tiny, cryptically labelled buttons, so everyone wants a more comprehensible interface.