inkbox i have zero idea.
patches there are many threads here. see for instance
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=297008
everything comes down to what your intentions are. the patches on the whole are to change functionality of the base kobo environment (ie the stock ereadibg software for both epubs and kobo formatted epubs).
there are alternative readers such as plato and koreader that are not affected by the patches.
there are also mods such as nickelmenu that add extra functions for ease of use that do not apply patches to the firmware