Hope all goes well with the testing, I know a lot of work has been done, and the halving of the replay time should help the developers and witness types, I am sure it will help us non-tech types also in quicker response to issues.
I listened to the dev talk, and want to say thanks for continuing with the keep it simple first then if need be we use a more complicated route.
I didn't think to mention it in the post, but the new code to reduce sync time also dramatically reduces cpu loading as well, so it should also enable an API node to be operated with lower power hardware.
I've seen a few post from witness and want to be witness or node runners talk about the power issues and cost of equipment, it seems you all are trying to keep node cost down for those that want to run one which in the long run for people like me is good, because we hate when nodes go down and funky things happen.