re: Sonos and alternatives for basic wireless audio

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I like everything about sonos except the lack of outdoor speaker. I know I can connect a regular outdoor speaker to a sonos amp/transmitter, but I'd like to avoid another connection.

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I really don't know of a better solution than this if you're willing to pay for a Sonos. I do not believe there are any outdoor, permanent powered speakers that have network connectivity. Anything you place outdoors permanently will need to be driven from a place out of the elements (ideally inside the house somewhere) making that Sonos linked above a pretty good option. I can't think of any replacement for it that would function any differently or "avoid another connection" as you say.

Most of the "multi zone amplifier" (in quotes because that's the best search term for them) solutions are designed for more than 2 zones, and they are way more amenable to permanent installation than any wireless speakers.

Any other way of powering the outdoor speakers and using the same sources and controls for an inside wireless speaker would be particularly complicated, wouldn't avoid the part you don't want to do, and would almost certainly require amps + 3rd party receiver/distributors. It could be done cheaper but not more simply than with a Sonos- and the one drawback you have to the sonos device above isn't avoided, so going another route for that reason just doesn't make good sense in this scenario.