What I expected to happen:
According to the FAQ:

"Q: I really like the worlds that I’ve built in the old version of Minecraft. Can I play them in Minecraft?

A: Yes, worlds from Minecraft: Xbox One Edition will already be there waiting for you in the play screen, so that you can continue playing."

I expected my LOCAL (XB1v) saves to be readable by the new Beta version of Bedrock Minecraft.

What actually happened was:
Apparently not only are the saves NOT READABLE as is by the new Beta version of Minecraft (requiring conversion) but it doesn't want to read the LOCAL save at all and insists on SYNCING from the cloud, which is very time consuming AND a failure point in the operation (failure to sync).

I don't get it, the CLEAR implication from the FAQ was that our Xbox One version saves would be easily and readily useable by the new version, now I find that this implication was a lie both in the ease and readiness aspects. Not only is there a conversion process, but this conversion process is limited by and affected by access to fast, reliable Internet access (and presumably your own cloud server's reliability)

Why can't I just convert my LOCAL save? Why force me to download and convert the version on the Cloud when all that does is make the process unneccesarily time-consuming AND far more failure-prone? This is especially frustrating given that we're forced to do this multiple times to get a result at all, and then more to get one that isn't borked.