Barebones? We've simply removed a few of the navbar items that we deemed unnecessary on the immediate front end for novice users. However, all those navbar functions can still be executed from the drop down menu.

It's not a mandatory upgrade; it's not a fork or swap. It's the same protocol. However, all of the indexes and exchanges will be reflecting the new name, Element (HYP), and all seed nodes and exchanges are already running the latest wallet version. So if you decide to continue to run the former HyperStake client, it's up to you; it just won't reflect the new name / branding / have any of the performance upgrades.