Performance wise, the OS 4 seems very good on 3GS. Now the issue with battery life seem isolated, with some finding 'increased' battery life and other finding degraded battery life. It seems to be a OS 4 issue or all that multi-tasking but I am still trying to nail culprit. I already upgraded to 4.0.1 and so far so good as far as the battery is concerned.
The only visible difference between OS 4 and OS 4.0.1 is the signal bars are longer, but I have not seen anything else. The Baseband does not change. I am hoping this sort my battery issue. I have charged to 100% an hour ago and I am still on 100% but on Standby. With OS 4, I was getting a drop of 1% every 3 or 4 minutes even on Standby.