Well, initial tests suggest that many of my issues at least, appear to have been resolved. Mainly the use of SKCropNode no longer tanks the frame rate, and the node/draw count has returned to a normal level, with an acceptable frame rate.
Thank you for fixing the problems with Sprite Kit. I, and I'm sure many other developers, appreciate this.
For me, since the release of iOS9, pretty much all of my time has involved re-engineering large chunks of code, in order to get my game to run on older devices, and to achieve an acceptable frame rate on newer ones. If I now run my original code with 9.2, the frame rate has returned to ~60, and it seems, we are back to iOS8 performace levels. Weeks of work that could have been focussed elsewhere.
Now I don't consider this work entirely wasted, as some of it is optimisations that I will keep. However, not knowing whether or not Apple was investigating, fixing, or even aware of these issues has meant an arduous and stressful process, trying to accomodate for a bad update. I have been communicating with an Apple tech support engineer, however he has apparenlty been as in the dark over the Sprite Kit team's progress as I am.
At the very least, it would have been helpful if Apple could have written on these forums, to offer some level of reassurance that this issue was known and being looked in to. Instead there is generally outcry from devs (myself included), with the odd request from Apple to submit a bug. I, and many others, have submitted bugs, example programs and detailed reports, with little to no feedback on their progress. I began to adopt the general feeling that Apple doesn't care.
I am grateful that this issue seems to finally have been resolved, however I would just like to say that a little more communication from Apple would have gone a long way. And possibly saved many stressful, late night coding sessions. I have felt extremely let down by Apple over the last couple of months, and being an independent developer, this has affected me personally and professionally.
So just to be clear, thank you for fixing Sprite Kit, but next time, a little more transparency please. It would go a long way to supporting devs, some of whose entire livelihoods rest on your whims. And in my case, my mental state too 😐