The deb-systemd-helper(1p) man page contains

  The "was-enabled" action is not present in systemctl, but is required in
  Debian so that we can figure out whether a service was enabled before we
  installed an updated service file. See http://bugs.debian.org/717603 for
  details.

At least bug 717603 is obsolete (fixed in 2013, i.e. 12 years ago).

  The "update-state" action is also not present in systemctl. It updates
  deb-systemd-helper's state file, removing obsolete entries (e.g. service
  files that are no longer shipped by the package) and adding new entries
  (e.g.  new service files shipped by the package) without enabling them.

There is a spurious double-space after the second "e.g." (last line).