The Import Utilities can actually be very handy for simply bulk updating system data without the need for SQL. When we used to use Mailchimp, we would all the time use a spreadsheet to update datapoints in audience lists, just using the email and the datapoint target in two columns. I've been doing this with Stratus to avoid making an SQL request. As a result, I've asked for several fields to be added to the utilties and appreciate that it got done. I actually think it's saving S+ service requests by doing it. As more volume users sign up, I think they will be more likely to want to do bulk updates, and changing the language in the software to reflect its additional usage capabilities would probably be helpful to all.

UPDATE:

It turns out the for Session Import, "Update" is really talking about Clients, not Session records. If you select Update as stands, what it's really saying is "check for this Client not this Session, and if you find this client, add a new session to it (because remember we're really doing a new session import here wiseguy)... do not make a duplicate client with same email." I'm used to Mailchimp, which when you do an import and select the option to update, it sees existing records and updates them, which is what in fact is happening here - I just thought it was going to update Sessions since it was in the Session utiltiy (didn't think of what I was doing as the Client sub-section of the Session import). So this I'm sure is expected functionality, but I can say from long experience dealing with client data that the ability to quickly make a targeted change to bunch of client records using a spreadsheet is very, very handy. So call this a request to add functionality and then change the label :)

A final word on this: consider how much of a pain it would be to make a change to some variable if the only way you could do it for a large group like a team of 800 I'm photographing in a couple of weeks... once those sessions have images, I can no longer so easily just delete the sessions and reimport them with the corrected data. I'd need to delete all the Sessions and pictures, and that's if there's no orders attached. Once invoices are in, it's probably too late for a group that size to make a change. Can be done with SQL, but I don't want to run the risk of making an error with that if I can help it, nor do I want to bother S+ to manipulate my data. They have enough to deal with from all my posts!