Text bending with the blue dot was introduced May 2020 so just after you purchased. So you could conceivably not have it if you never updated. Text to path was introduced in 2019 so should work that way.
If you’ve never upgraded I’d encourage you to do so as there have been a lot of improvement in that time.
I actually don’t know how this works and had been curious about it. I don’t know if the 1 year update period means that it’s the period of time where you can access updates or if you qualify for all updates released within the 1 year period.
We’ll need @Rick or @LightBurn or someone else from the team to provide insight.