Dave,
nope, you can use both CAN and SBUS2 on the SB-PSENSE (and the ADSB once it is available). IF you only want to have the airpressure on the transmitter, you just need the SBUS2 connection. If you want (also) the pressure on the Android screen, you have to connect the CAN bus also.
Regarding the firmware version of the ASSI, there has only been 1 (one!) incident where there was a bug in the firmware, this was a cosmetic one when used in a special case together with the LCD display and Gaspar ECU's Other than that the new firmware versions just add functionality (Gaspar support, AMT engines, JR support, Spektrum etc) You can always check the current firmware version if you look in the first line of one of the log files on you SD card (the one with the highest number).
Well, the "LIDAR altimeter" is actually using laser for ranging. I have made a small interface board for it so it will connect to, tadaaaa, my CAN bus It will blend in with the rest of the products (the sole reason for choosing CAN bus in the first place, almost all turbine manufacturers could learn something from that instead of using I2C, Yikes !)
The Lidar instrument is not exactly cheap, but I guess it would be cool to be able to get super precise height information, who knows what else we can come up with that this can be used for