As you discovered BluRay has a rather nasty feature of studios able to issue a new DRM and break older players. I'm not going to dive into how it works or why.
So yes is the simple answer and so far no one has made a good court case about the issue you noted. That said I don't collect BluRay titles often. I read a lot when BluRay came out and decided they were looney.
I just popped in season 5 of Adventure Time, and the ads play, then the menu screen appears. The music plays, but the episode selection does not show up. I did some googleing, and it seems this is a problem that some people are having with their players (the discs are not faulty).
Is my player too old? The most recent firmware update is from 2013. I have BD-D5700-ZA.
I'm a little annoyed that an expensive Blu Ray player will not play new Blu Ray discs. My mindset is very much planted in the VHS era. Is this an adjustment I have to make? Will I have to buy a new player every three years?

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