I just upgraded to firmware 2.8.1, because I saw some updated drivers in the pack. I haven't seen any differences/improvements for now.
The upgrade deleted my entire .kobo folder. It overwrites initd.conf, rcS and on-animator.sh. While, initd.conf and animator.sh are the same as in 2.6.1., the rcS-upgrade script is changed in a number op places compared to the rcS-upgrade of version 2.6.1. However, after upgrading rcS is also identical.
1-Step-hack is not affected and also works for firmware 2.8.1