Maybe it would be better to actually look at this as a subscription instead of an early access thing
I've argued earlier on that this is exactly what it is; with regard to the online catalogue at least which, rightly or wrongly because I don't actually use it, I look on as a cloud service... and if you stop subscribing to a cloud service you loose [the] benefit

I think Xara should be upfront about this and admit that they are locking in users on that side of the program, or at the very least creating a situation that makes the risk of that too high to be acceptable for many

Personally I never see me using the online catalog, easy enough because I don't do web design; what this means though is if that is where the upgrading remains concentrated then what is there in it for me.. ? I'm prepared to wait and see for now, but it has got to the stage where paying for a xara upgrade is no longer even in my ongoing budget for the coming year...