I updated to 10.14.4 via the Combo Updater. So far, the only change that I have noticed is that the background color of the Dock is gray instead of blue (and I recall that that was its color in High Sierra).

I used the Delta; it didn't take very long at all...14 minutes from when it told me 44. (The days when we waited weeks to update...months to upgrade are looong gone, aren't they?)

My impression is that Safari is loading pages faster than it had been.

Anybody else see the same?

That's my impression too, but it's too early to tell and, besides, I haven't timed the previous loading. Hopefully, you're right.