It is also taking a longer time to render than the previous version.

The issue seems to be that the image sequence is always rendered at the project frame rate of 60 fps. The render frame rate used to be and should be adjusted according to what the user has selected. So a project of 240 frames (4 seconds), should render 96 frames @ 24 fps, 100 frames @ 25 fps, and 120 frames @ 30 fps.

RL - 
Ran sample project for 400 frames, rendered image sequence @30 FPS.
So I am expecting 200 frames, like in 7.22.

What happens is it renders at 60 FPS, despite me having selected 30 FPS.
It renders all frames, for a total of 400 rendered images, and numbers them as if it were being run at 60 FPS, 1-400.

While it is doing this, it shows the countdown from 0-100%, and the 100% shows at frame 200, but then you see it proceeds to render frames 201-400, all while still showing 100%.
So, it conveys the info in a disjointed fashion, where it still 'thinks' it is rendering at 60 FPS, while simultaneously thinking it is complete after 200 frames.

Perhaps related to change in code involving the new discarding of simulation frames, now part of the realtime render function. 

It's silly i have to vote to fix a very important function that is broken ;-(

Yep -- also somewhat related is the (very) odd way iClone reports frames rendered (it shows completion LONG before it's ever completed).