I like the fact that 4x will have delta updates so downloads and uploads should go much faster
- but even with a fast internet is there any way to make things faster.

Wishful thinking?

1. Login to IPS initiate a transfer Server to Server - zipped file shows up on server in a staging area.
2. Decompress files (full or delta) remotely on server in the staging area.
3. Issue some command or script to move files & directories to destination path preserving same features as uploading files via FTP - (merge directories and overwrite files)

even if there isn't a way to do it server to server directly at least the latter two options.

I would like to pull the latest, bleeding edge code from the GIThub or whatever they are using.  Have the zip get built directly from there.