I want to thank everyone for their comments.
I received a reply from the web support people, and they said it is not upgradable, period. I guess this means they deleted the extra wording about the fare conditions on the old SWUs for the new SWUs because it was not needed as the "except" conditions can be derived from the fare rules.
The fare on the United German web site is similar to the e-fares offered on the USA website. The main difference being the fares on the German website run until April rather than for just a few days.
FYI, consolidators do offer similar V fares for about 10% less than the internet fares offered by United, but also with the no upgrades permitted rule. So you can save 10% but no on-line booking bonus.