Pardon my rudeness what will exploiting the browser do?
What should I be scared/cautious about since I updated?
I hacked my wii u last year and updated the latest firmware last week. The console still works, I haven't played online yet or used my homebrew vwii in the couple of weeks and have shopped in the wii u eshop.
Exploiting the browser injects arbitrary code into the web browser process, which only lasts as long as the browser is running. If you use the kernel exploit, you'll be able to access memory with full kernel permissions for as long as the system is on.
TL;DR: Nothing is permanent.