Time can be an issue connecting to Wi-Fi. Devices who've lost track of time often can't properly negotiate access to then get NTP updates to their time. Perhaps this could be solved, but it's a common problem for devices left for the batteries to go dry.

It is a bit sensationalist to say this is reviving it though, which makes this sound like some wild issue.

Frankly, consumer gadgets where time is >10 minutes off of trusted time service should force-set their time, instead of giving up.

Defaults that make sense to servers with dedicated ops don't make sense for consumer products. Don't just run a default-config NTP client in a consumer product.