Yep that's my impression also. Neveer tried them after LocalWhois took them over but a while ago I signed up again and names were not updated, etc. They are sending these huge one year deals in my inbox all the time - I think it's all just useless..
i agree with whois. exody updates faster, but sometimes you can find the names in domainsbot more quickly. I think exody is better of course, but i would not call domainsbot useless.