2.1.2 upgrade from older version

I''ve been testing 2.1.2, trying to use a 2.0.5 installation and 
installing only new class files in the classes directory 
and new indexers in the jigsaw\config\indexers directory.

It didn't wanted to convert my configuration files 'stores' and 'auth'.
So the server wasn't working.
Otherwise, installation worked fine with the complete new release.
I'm pretty sure that I had the same trouble with the earlier 2.1.1 version and that it had been corrected.

This leads me to ask you two more questions :
- in version 2.1.1 and 2.1.2, xml files storing user description store password in clear format. Couldn't 
you store it as an MD5 hash so it could be crypted ?
- is there a way to store user's definition in a database, instead than your XML files, or at least a way 
to replicate those informations ( so I should not have to create twice users ) ?

Regards - j Brax