The number of images count was always an option, you can disable that (written in the documentation). Anyway, the option got lost in the 1.4.1 plugin version and is back in 1.4.2 (svn 1586 or newer).
A indicator that an album has subalbums would be if it does not have any images (the count should not be shown). Other than that, I would not know how to indicate that without cluttering everything. Anyway, I am working on it that that dropdown variant shows always all albums and subalbums.
[i]Like the change to dropMenu from dropList (forget exact terminology).[/i]
Actually I don't know what change you mean, the bascic funcitonality of shown either a list or a dropdown has not been changed.