2038 is closer than it seems

for a large percentage of the embedded devices, thinking that the date is 1904 instead of 2039 will not actually hurt things much. The biggest question is how everything will handle the rollover

But since embedded devices get reset and power cycled anyway, if they do have problems, resetting them if not going to be that unusual an action.

and then there is a category that cares about the day of the week (or month), and for those you can pick a time in the available window where the calendar matches up.

it's a surprisingly small group of devices that care what year it is