Upball is still the same. It wasn't supposed to be changed in the patch, but we're supposed to get a hotfix that changes the recovery. No idea when that goes into effect.
Well not exactly from what I have heard it still has less punishable on block then the original one but still more punishable then the new one, plus on whiff it goes the new speed so it can also help with movement
Johnny Cage and Quan Chi can uppercut an upball on block and whiff, need to test the rest of the chars. But my roomate, who plays johnny, was uppercutting the shit out of kano when I did careless upballs.
I watched a MK on youtube that was uploaded quite recently that was against Kano and the upball was still the same otherwise the guy would not have abused it as much he did.