As the earliest adopter of APFS ROM PATCHER v2 on macpro 3.1, I can address some of your questions:
0) Have the same Boot ROM version - the patcher did not change that
1) In my experience, all ROM flashing was completed in one cycle. I then rebooted into HFS+ with no issues. Then rebooted using the patcher to reformat my boot disk as APFS before installing the new patched OS.
2) Haven't checked. Good question.
3) Didn't benchmark, but it seems a little zipper. Can't tell for sure if it's just new car smell...
Of course,
@dosdude1 is the ultimate authority on all things APFS boot rom related. So make sure and double check with him. This is just my real-world experience. YMMV.
Good luck.
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I know...just being a little lazy on a Sunday afternoon...Trying to avoid any unnecessary lifting
.
Patching CoreDisplay and/or OpenGL so we can avoid application specific workarounds is tricky enough...
And of course,
tomorrow is patch Monday! Some new surprises for sure...