Is this a new way to deploy dispatcher configs to AEM cloud?

When we want to add some redirects, the process takes several weeks and costs tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.  This is because we have to update the dispatcher configs in our project, build it several times on dev (which takes on average 1.5 hours each build) to test it, then schedule the change to go into test env, then UAT env, then stage, then prod, each time doing a 1-2 hour build, and several rounds of smoke tests (as there is no way to ensure that what was build in one env is the same as what was tested on another env (as Adobe remove the ability to deploy a version tested on one env to another)

It has been said that Adobe might streamline the process to update dispatcher configs.

I saw this:

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/experience-manager-cloud-manager/using/getting-started/dispatcher-configurations.html?lang=en

However, it's not clear if they are saying that dispatcher configs are part of our current massive build and deploy everything process, or that dispatcher can be deployed on its own. If dispatcher configs can be deployed on their own, does this mean we should remove dispatcher configs in our current build?

1. This article makes reference to "Existing Managed Services Customers". Is managed service the same as cloud AEM? 
2. Does this article apply to cloud AEM?
3. Is this a "new" process?  If so, does it require a specific version of cloud AEM?