Does anyone know if or when the mini popup problem will be solved?
Don't think there is a problem here. New popup is actually smaller than the old, and, I feel, less obtrusive than the old one was. We're really talking about an issue that has been plaguing the forum for months, that of obtrusive pop-ups in the old versions, and this is a resulting change due to numerous complaints about that.
Personally, I think avast! nailed this one.
As I said earlier, with 170 million + active users, not all users are going to get this update rolled out to them at the same time.