I think
overall the patch improved things for many people. It's not a guarantee for everyone that the latest patch = a smooth non-buggy game, however. Never is.
For myself, patch 1.1 is what made the (pc) crashes a lot less frequent. I haven't noticed all that much difference in 1.2 beyond the quest fixes & weapon changes...and the Boone issue, already mentioned. Some people also have a bug with companions being poisoned (where stimpacks then kill the companion, which they shouldn't do). I think I have had a few more CTD's with 1.2 than I did with 1.1, but nothing major.
Edit: Also, if you have the Steam-bought downloadable version (no disc), if you only update your game rather than uninstall/re-download entire game, you may see more glitches than before. But a uninstall/redownload makes it all happy again. That's what happens to me anyway. My computer probably doesn't like Steam or something.