The positioning is different though. The original was sold as a peerless sound experience, and this one is just the upper version of the HomePod mini so you can save yourself some sound chops and adopt modular parts (see: power cable) for cost reductions.
It’s not unlike what happened to the Watch, where the communication features that were heavily touted in the Series 0 were swept aside for the newer products as Apple pivoted hard on the health features.