Do yourself a favor and ask your reseller what exactly ALC means for you in the coming years. Don’t omit the "mandatory" aspect of the story.
I also started to comment the 4.0 thread on the forum and wind up with a long text (again 😉 ) but finally didn’t post.
Personally I think 4.0 is what I had excpected from 3.5. So for me it’s 3.5+4.0 = 3.5. You don’t know yet what’s new? Let me know if i should publish the ‘what’s new’ text.