Do you mean no longer possible to use the online version of windows update from Auditmode, or do you mean we can no longer integrate offline updates into a machine during Auditmode ?
Without a lot of the recent updates there's also that bug where the first time you log on it sits there in the checking for updates mode as well. I think it finally got fixxed with the Nov rollup. A workaround would be to run admin prompt and do a 'net stop wuauserv' and then just re-check for updates. Of course with the lack of admin updates, you'd have to create a bogus account and then run a sysprep /audit and delete the temp account. Big pain in the ass to sysprep 8.1... Still doable, but annoying.