There's too many ACTIVE branches of X-Cart
4.0.x, 4.1.x, 4.2.x 4.3.x and now a 4.4.x. Upgrading between any of them is a nightmare (always has been).
I agree with the previous poster regarding 4.3 & 4.4 in that they never should have been on the drawing board. I know it's nice to have all those things in the same branch level, but upgrading is such a nightmare that upgrading to Version 5 would be no more difficult than upgrading 4.1 to 4.3.
I like the addition of the new features, but really, I'd much rather see Version 5 released in March and allow us a few months of testing before the PCI Deadlines.
So there'll be a version 4.4 come out in March and a Version 5 in June/July... seems crazy to me. Version 4 shoudl have an EOL date set and future development continue into Version 5. Extending the life of 4.x hinders the potential growth of version 5. Just like 3 hindered 4. We STILL have users using Version 3 out there (oh, and I know one guy still using Version 2).