If you bought a clone you are even worst off because there is no one to support your chip. If clone users really wanted to stick it to the wiikey team then they should have gotten an open source chip.
I think the point is that the original WiiKey isn't supported as well...
Its possible that the audiofix isn't active at the point even though its in the hardware. An update is needed to enable the audiofix. Various companies do this to attract more customers by acting like they "support" their products.
In the most likely scenario, The WiiKey development team is just waiting for the new version of GCOS to come out before they enable the audiofix to make it a bigger update and have perfect Gamecube compatability.
You're N-Card download play theory didn't make sense, but this exceeds it by far.
Disabling a feauture and then enabling it within a few weeks after a release makes a bit of sense, but waiting like half a year isn't helping much. People have totally lost faith in WiiKey, are buying other chips or just wiikey clones, because it doesn't mather for the support, or just because they don't think WiiKey deserves it if they don't give support.
Even if they release now in a week or something, it's far to late. Owners will be happy with it, but potential chip buyers will choose a chip that releases 'important' updates quicker.