Re: How easy is it to turn on in the release version?
"With a registry hack and copying a dll or two from the beta version can the monitoring be turned back on?"
More than likely it'll be something easier than that: something that doesn't require administrative privileges or a restart; that way it can be done silently.
"If I judiciously add an entry in hosts can I divert the upload elsewhere?"
Doubt it. They're probably using a number of hardcoded IPv4 quartets and IPv6 clusters to practically guarantee delivery. Credits to milos this list is well-hidden and encrypted with Microsoft's key so only they can edit it (and again, it can probably be updated silently in case numbers have to be changed).