I'm just guessing here, but I believe some map discs need a certain level of software to run correctly, this maybe why your 2008-1 won't give you direction of travel. Someone else will no doubt confirm or deny that.

You should definitely carry out the update. Although Perspective view is an obviously significant visible change there are bound to be several 'background' improvements which you would benefit from.

The first few pictures HERE show how your screen will look during the software update procedure, and pictures 5 to 8 HERE give an idea of what Perspective view is like. Ignore the first few pictures in the second link as UCrewX5 was loading a v26 beta update version, so you will not see the screenshots in pictures 3 and 4 during a normal update. In picture 8 the zoom level is 2.5 miles, but the view is better the more you zoom in. I'm sure there are better Perspective pictures elsewhere on here, have a look around.