simplextech

It is what it is.  It's a inventory list of the nodes and devices within your ISY.
Common use by many was to know how many nodes were in their ISY994i and whether they were close or over the node limit.  If they were they knew what was now causing node add failures and they could upgrade to the ISY Pro.  
Knowing how many devices of different types is just a metric that many find useful or interesting.  The error log entries was added from a request as it is good to know and then clear the log so it doesn't continue consuming system space.

This should be possible through programs.

I don't think the trial has anything to do with it.  Or I would hope not.  There nothing in the code that defines the trial or difference in functionality that's all part of the PG3 Store.
There are instances where a NS does not stop correctly and then will not start up again but this is resolved by killing the old process or by rebooting which you did.  So this isn't the issue.
Before I pushed the update to the store I removed and re-installed my local version and I did not have any problems.  If the update process is not working for you then please try a delete of the NS and then fresh install of the NS.  If this works I'll have to go back and install an older version and try the update and if there's a problem with the update I'll work with UD.