You’re right, but I can’t justify the huge cost of the full version and I’m never likely to use any of the recording facilities included in it.
I was expecting Elements-9 to at least be as capable as the ancient WL-6 I am migrating from.
As it turns out, The CD marker facility I was looking for (in another thread) is not required in Element-9, so that is better than before - Not having to enter markers is much better than having to enter them. 
With regard to LUFS metering, this is such a basic requirement these days that I am amazed that the latest, basic Wavelab version is not able to produce a basic, industry standard master of any kind (CD, Youtube etc) on its own without the use of third-party software.
It seems that there are loads of third-party Loudness meter VSTs available (even free ones), so I guess I can just load one of those into Elements to counteract the deficiency.