10.2.1 was smoother for me as well. I wonder if part of the over-all performance enhancements also come from replacing sluggish air apps with cascades apps instead? Like you, I've seen the last two releases make it smoother in general.
I still don't understand why this is called 10.2.1. There were a lot of updates in here for it to be versioned like a hot fix. I would have thought 10.3 or 10.5