That is an interesting one. Basically you can set clone directions, or "whey they are pointing too" with fields :)
You can now have nice direction distribution etc. For example, you can make fish school way easier now or similar effects
Well, node materials is completely new development and in reality, first major thing provided by new core. I don't know the answer to your question, since I don't make decisions, but as far as I know, new core is certainly capable of supporting complete node based system of any kind.