There are two important but subtle things that make the Update Service incomplete.

With Web Designer 11, one can still access and use all the catalogue items.
I paid for and still can additionally access Template Pack 1 & 2, Widget Pack 1 and Web Pack 1 & 2.
For those without XWD11(P), you can see what is available in http://downloadsv11.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html.

Magix forward to v16, and if you in cover, you can probably access v12, v15 & v16 catalogues fully from each respective application.
Out of cover, you get blocked from most of the items, http://downloadsv16.xara.com/web/catalog/index.html.
If you try to access any on-line content, the application directs you to a purchase page.
What was rightly accessible in v11 (Smart Shapes and Page Elements), essential to using the Xara Desktop application, are totally blocked.
Only if you have downloaded and used these elements can you ever access them in the Local Designs gallery.

Before the Update Service, Xara operated on an annual deployment but there were bug fix rollouts that you can download and use.
In your Update Service cover, you have tasters, with eventual rollback, to your purchase version.
This totally obliterates and bug fixes Xara may have released, which now are as rare as rocking horse teeth.
Can anyone name another software vendor that sells a package that cannot have any bugs removed that are there at time of purchase and have been fixed within the year?
Xara needs to reverse this time warp and allow the Update Service to expire at the current version.

Acorn