The more difference between old and new versions, the more settings you loose. You should assume that you loose all settings and start over when the changes are as numerous as with 16.09 to next.
On the other hand, UAV files are just human readable text. You can use a text editor to (line by line) painstakingly copy each individual setting number out of an old (16.09) UAV file and replace that setting number in a default 'next' UAV file. For must users it is probably easier to screen capture each old GCS page that has non-default values and hand type them into a default (settings erased) new GCS setup.
Make sure you "export uav settings" from the old GCS before upgrading.