7.2 update is not going to be disruptive at all. Rows is builders are pretty harmless, since all the do is adding a pre-configured site-wide column to the builder, which you can use to add blocks to. Keep it empty and it's work same as 7.1.

Rounded profile pics are released through CSS. Just change the corner radius and they're back to square. We're using rounded profile thumbnails because this is currently the most popular way of displaying "people" in social networks, contacts lists see more software, chats, etc. It serves as a quick indicator of this being a "person". They are becoming quite conventional, so we believe that Dolphin should adopt this trend. Again, it is VERY easy to change this back to square, rounded square, or whatever. It's just CSS. Photos are still kept as square/rectangular originals.

Avatars - we are yet to get to that point, but generally the plan is to keep Avatars module functionality, but switch to Photos as a default way of serving avatars. Just making it more intuitive for users - too often people get confused on why Avatars aren't served from Profile Photos and why they have a different interface. Once we update uploaded and add cropping tool to all pictures, Avatars would be easy to create from them.

So, all in all, even though on surface 7.2 will seem very different, you will see that under the hood it's nearly the same as 7.1. We don't expect any serious compatibility issues with most Market extensions/modules/mods/templates to occur either.

Cheer up! It an evolutionary update. We all could use a little bit of a fresh look and extra interest from newcomers.