In my experience rn, 0.32 feels way much different from 0.31.
Since my experience with game only started with 0.30 at all, cant say for any earlier version. I do miss the ability to hatch between MC and recruited chars. But either combat felt easier or my current seedruns just a bit unlucky.
Btw, i just found out that you can bug out your starters size. Pick oversized trait for 5pts, change gender - and viola, your starter size got updated into bigger size. You can repeat it until you get Enormous starters, remove trait and save up points.