For a given extract, are the new directly-downloadable R-formatted files identical to the files produced by ipumsr::read_ipums_micro from the DDI and the .dat or .csv files? If so, does the package provide any other added value to the (greatly enhanced) value of the R-formatted files?
The R command file that now shows up for extracts simply installs ipumsr if it is not already installed and then applies the read_ipums_ddi() and read_ipums_micro() methods to the xml and fixed width data files. So, the new R command files essentially apply the capabilities in the ipumsr package directly to a given data set.