RE: What happened to Xi?
 

A little bit of all of those in my opinion. Any new bow for $80 is a relative steal though you are going to have the most difficult time finding parts for it should something go wrong with the bow...and if it is something major then that $80 goes right down the drain.

RE: What happened to Xi?
 

I would personally stay far away from it if I was you. From what I've seen in shopping for a bow recently.. LH bows go for less than RH bows because they are harder to sell. I think you could find a nicer bow even for the $80 that you listed. Hell a new PSE nova is a little over $200... a used one would be considerably less.
On the other hand my father purchased a new XI back in 92 I believe. It's a very smooth and easy to shoot bow and great for hunting. But it's extremely slow... but the deer at 10-25yrds don't seem to care. He's one that doesn't like to change anything... hell he hunted w/ a '70s Bear alaskan till he got the xi.