Not so fast.
I tend to share your skepticism, but in reality since the entire radio industry is moving relentlessly toward commoditization of SDR hardware and software components, I expect any company involved in any aspect of receiver and two-way radio business to have it already in their technology toolbox, or will have it very soon. That includes Kenwood which plays big in the audio and radio entertainment systems business. Even AM-FM-Sirius car radios will become SDR... it just makes economic sense. I mean just look at the sub-$500 SDR radios that are hitting the market these days... SDR technology seems to have already gone over the "early adopters" phase, and it isn't expensive or out of reach anymore.
The jump to SDR is likely going to be no harder than the jump from the hybrid tube/solid state to purely solid state radios that Yaesu and Kenwood had to make during the 1980s. Icom led the pack to wideband solid state PAs much earlier.
Maybe Chinese radio companies are hollowing out the low and middle ranges of the handheld and base station markets, and radio prices are racing to the bottom because many hams are attracted to low prices no matter what the quality is, but the high end market is still very strong. So if Kenwood does exit the ham radio market, I would be disappointed and surprised. I think they don't have a good excuse for doing that.
73, Ed