Interesting, not sure we will ever get a fix specific to us though, tbh I'm happy enough with 8.1 but the amount of hassle to get back to a functioning machine was probably way beyond the average...

Do you mean you only have the integrated Intel graphics rather than the dual Intel/nvidia set up?
i have the dual but the issue is that the display used the integrated card as primary in all cases...

I too had the exact same issue and have spent the best part of a week on and off to get back to a working machine. I spent a lot if time and effort figuring out what the issue was and how to fix it....