[forster01]

in my opinion new 4.18.firmware is great, i don't have any issues once i set it up correctly.
The trouble is that they did some changes that can be easily managed with settings adjustments. so that is not worse, that is better as now you have meny options that you can use if you prefer. all of them can easily be reverted with settings and you dont even need a patch.
I like that they did changes that can enhance your(or others) reading experience and not in the way that e-reader should lean towards tablet experiance.

I would look around the new firmware, and try new options/settings (i'm surprised that you didn't already). and then judge if its good or bad.

I love progres bar, as it doesn't reduce reading space, and just looking at it i can tell how much is till the end (roughly, as i don't care about page count that is usually wrong, nor the chapter name, or book name, as i usually do know what i'm reading; previously i used percentage ).

So as you can see you can set it up on your own likenings with not much trouble. Just disable options that you don't like, and that's it.

Or you can after setting up your device, just unpack firmware you want and roll back.
BTW, i'm using win 7 with no intention to upgrade.