Hacking Using Gekko instead of upgrading firmware

[1ronlung]

Hi.
To start off, I don't want this to degenerate into a should/shouldn't upgrade thread.
My question is simple:

From reading posts on this forum sporadically, I am under the impression that the following is possibly true.
Just wanted to run it by some forum members that are further into 'the scene' than I am ..

1) If you want to run a game from DVD without *changing permanantly, or replacing* your menu or IOSs, simply run it from Gekko and it will temporairally(sp) patch anything that needs patching to run the game.
2) I am also under the assumption that Gecko can be used as an alternative to load 'backup' DVDs.

Basically, I'm wondering if someone who's on 3.2 can run a backup through Gecko needing a 3.4 or 4.1 update ?

Thanks in advance,
ironlung