I think it is best to push back the hardfork date till the end of next month, in order to allow proper testing time for all these new changes once they are implemented (especially as the last two tasks are being done by the same developer).

Better to take the slow approach and get things right. As much as we want the hard fork, better to test as much as possible. It seems the now areas of focus will have a marked impact on performance so best to get things operationally and fully tested.

Thanks for the update.