That's nice of you to point out but do you have a link to theses "well known and well documented" I guess features since they are documented?
I thought everyone knew that Articia was broken by design. However, your USB problem have nothing to do with Articia S so your problem must be software related.
Btw I have heard that you must solder some caps or something to get USB devices recognized properly on XE. Worth a shot, I think.