Hi John,
I am sorry for all the confusion we caused you. Let me address a few things to clear things up.
First and foremost, the File > New Vault feature being removed was a bug in the 6.6 release. This will be fixed and brought back in a future update.
As for your first point about providing an in app purchase option alongside local storage options for new users, this is possible already in 6.6. You simply click More Options from the setup screen and then create a local vault.
The 6.6 release was a free update for all users and iCloud and WLAN Sync and Dropbox syncing all continue to work fine alongside our new 1Password memberships. If you ever find a bug, please let us know.
As a license holder of 1Password 6 from the Mac App Store, your license will continue to work for version 6 and all updates for as long as you want to use it. It wouldn't be until a paid upgrade to a major new version that you would be required to do anything.
I hope that helps clear things up. I'm sorry about the New Vault bug and we'll fix it soon. If you need to workaround the issue immediately, you can try adding a new Demo vault. Doing so should bring back the missing menu item you seek.
Take care,
–Dave Teare AgileBits Founder