Re the hinting differences. The differences are pretty small, and definitely not obvious.
For Futura there appears to be less hinting than previously, but for Palatino slightly more.
Here's an example of what I'm meaning.
5.2 on the left, 5.3 on the right.
The font is Futura and the size is the smallest.
The 'old' font clearly has cleaner outlines, but the new one has more weight.