I dist-upgraded today. I only use i3 and lxqt so there were only a couple of apps I would loose (blender, vlc and qlandcarte) Everything looks OK but I have noticed desktop switcher widget no longer works, I can set desktops with obconf and move between them using the keyboard but no switcher widget. There was several upgrades for lxqt including for the panel I think this may be where the problem lays.
you are right and i have no clue what the problem is and how to fix it - time will tell