The step backwards you see Altium regarding not being able to freely export/import is the result of a nut job named Henry Potts, who also formerly ruled Mentor

The step backwards you see Altium regarding not being able to freely export/import is the result of a nut job named Henry Potts, who also formerly ruled Mentor with an iron fist. He did not bring about positive change, quite the opposite. He did the same thing regarding locking down import/export with Expedition circa ~2006 or ~2008(?) specifically to tie people into a Mentor flow, breaking years of tools people had written that enabled footprint / schematic import/export capability. In an a "Jack Welch" kind of way, somehow he attained industry envy from the other EDA companies and Altium hired him, even though, like Jack Welch, he's not someone who actually did positive things.