I think he might have moved Sophia to even Genesis 9.
Genesis 8.1 already had massive improvements in expressions. Genesis 9 even more so, from what I can remember, haven't worked with it myself.
What I can say about G8.1 though, as I have had experience with it, is that you now have the option of freely moving the face to create the expressions that you want. Don't know if that's what he is doing.
There is also the possibility to apply motion capture to real expressions.
I also agree that his expression work is amazing. That, the lighting and the textures.
A lot of people are complaining on the main thread about the delays and the slow progress but with this update I can kind of understand it. It might take a long time to reach to the results you want. And it would also be hard to find another artist to be able to do this high level type of work for a decent amount of money.
I would actually help L&P for free for an update just to learn from him.
Definitely feeling worse about my renders now
. I feel I don't do Sofia justice.