That Etrex is from a much earlier line, possibly didn't even have a colour screen, and they were tricky to use, the modern ones are far better with a choice of buttons or touchscreens. Personally I prefer the buttons as they can still be operated with gloves on.
There's no reason why you should need to upgrade your 1410. I have a 1310 (same series, smaller screen) and a 1490 as backups to my later models, and they both update without issue, so the advice you've been given to replace them with a newer model is simply wrong. Why you're struggling to update I can't say, but if you want to take the risk I'd happily have you send it to me and I'll update the maps for you. PM me if you want to take me up on that as we're well off topic for this thread