Brian,
If you make changes to the XIN file in InRoads Group V8i as you suggest, users of InRoads Group XM Edition should not have any problems opening this XIN file. InRoads Group XM Edition should just read the settings that it is familiar with and then ignore those that it is not familiar with (e.g. Random Points Form Separate Features that you mentioned). Note that the user should get invalid XIN file messages if they try to validate a file edited in InRoads Group V8i with the InRoads Group XM Edition schemas. Note: To validate an XIN file, an external program such as XMLSpy is needed.
I hope this helps.
Jason Smithey