Re: Poll
I didn't vote for any of the options in the poll, cause none reflect my opinions on this upgrade. I think this new version brings some really neat features, but I wouldn't say it's "more than I ever wished for!". The second option does not reflect my opinion because I think it is more than just "nice minor improvements" and text underline was not that high on my wish list.

Re: New version and upgrading
I think every one of us has 1 special wish (feature request/bug fix etc.) for the software and if the developers implement it, we will upgrade no matter how small that 1 wish was (if they don't, then they should have one! ). For me, it was fixing the inaccurate boolean operations (intersect/subtract etc.). While to any other person, this might be a minor fix that deserves no mentioning, to me it's pure gold!
Now they've also added a basic X3D to the program (among some other good improvements), which makes it better. Cause I've always wanted to fiddle with X3D. This makes it very worthwhile to buy X4. Currently I have X1 and between these 2 versions, there were no really useful additions to the software for me. Agreed, I'm a vector fanatic and would still like to see more vector tools added to the software, but you can't have everything in life.
This version has good features and bad features IMO. When I read they added an HTML export feature, I thought "what were they thinking?" and I think every user experiences this reaction for some feature that has been added. Thing is, you gotta weigh the negative features with the positive features and once you have a "net" value, you have to consider whether the upgrade price is worth it for the net value. For me, since X1, upgrading was not worth it until now.

Re: Xara's course over the years
I understand how people here defend Xara's course by saying they need to attract a wider audience with raster tools and that this new version will definately bring Xara more success...But personally, I need some official proof/confirmation of this. If they show us their earnings over the last 5 years or so or some other proof that their course is the right one, I'll be convinced and happy. Currently, I just know the opinions that I read on this forum, but that's no proof of how the company is actually doing.
If you consider that since X1, they've mainly kept adding raster tools, this might be an argument to say that all these years they're actually trying to save their product from going belly-up. But this is just an opinion and proves nothing, like all other posts

Final note
One other thing: Xara may implement features that seem useful or useless to you and me, but one thing I feel is that - when they add a useful feature - Xara do come up with original ways to implement them effectively. An example is text repelling. I think Xara have originality in implementing features in a way that's both innovative and feels natural to users. It's just that I think they could concentrate a bit more on vector tools