Hello and please apologize for the n00b comment - I am just now researching if Xara might be a good replacement for Adobe Illustrator (now that Adobe has decided to up my annual tax from $800 to over $1500 with their new cloud-based-only offerings)... I have several people who use Photoshop and Illustrator.

Here are some specific functions that I am unsure if Xara can do, they are absolutely critical for some of the things we do - does Xara have versions of these?

Unite:
Often we need to take an object and combine it with another object to make more complex objects (which then share the same edge/line that can be adjusted). Adobe calls it "Unite"

Minus Front:
But, harder is that we often need to cut away from objects. So say a square on a lower layer we want to carve out a section using another object as the map. Adobe calls it "Minus Front". For example, often we will set an object to a 20% opacity then hand draw another object and minus-front it on the other object to have artwork blend with other artwork or photos.