You have lost nothing. You can continue to use the version of X1 that cost you all that money.
It is not my company. I am just one of the people who has paid for the various versions of X1 over the years. I am also old enough to know that the Internet idea that everything has to be free is a sure way to bankruptcy.
I guess my view is coloured by the fact that I have spent my working life in the media, working on magazines that needed paying customers to deliver the pitiful wages that I have earned.
Guess what, every week we expected people to pay the same price as they did the week before. We didn't charge less if they bought last week's issue.
We did offer discounts to subscribers. And wouldn't you know it? So does X1. Had you taken out a service contract with X1, the company would have "given you" Search 8 for nothing. But I guess that someone who balks at $50 for a new version after four years isn't going to subscribe.
On which, such is the mindset of many customers that more and more software houses, including Microsoft, are moving over to a subscription model. So you won't get an option in future. Pay your subscription or your software stops working. Microsoft stopped offering discounts to existing users of Office quite some time ago. Even with Microsoft, the deals for Windows 8 were one-offs designed to encourage early adoption.
As to the effect on X1's reputation, there hasn't been a flood of complaints about the price of the upgrade. So the bean counters probably aren't losing sleep. Something tells me that you are swimming against the tide.
