It's based on the NAND Chip, Mine is the same as yours (5296e64818bf2d1dbdc6b594f3eefd17). There's more than 1 just like with the NES Classic.
Agree, but they are distinctly different versions, with upgrades to different core components. The actual behavior between the two NES releases is visibly different with additional features in the later release.
There's now at least two (the other is v2.0.13), which I'm keenly interest in seeing.