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Where just the rears are concerned...... If one wishes to do this one will also need the later design rotors as well (larger diameter), along with the entire parking brake system, that includes the pedal assembly. Where the fronts are concerned one will need the 95-96 front struts that provide for the larger diameter rotors. The calipers remain the same.

My rule of thumb is every 36 months, that will depend on where in the country you live, if you live in a higher humidity region flush the system more often. All brake fluid (glycol) with the exception of silcone based fluid is hygroscopic. Keeping the system clean is something that is generally overlooked by most vehicle owners. When you purchase replacement brake fluid & you open the container (or containers) to use it try to use most of if not all of what's in the container. Leaving a capped partially used unsealed container on the shelf is just as bad as what will happen to what's in the cars system. Humidity knows no bounds.

Do not blame the caliper for this situation, this particular design is a high maintenance design. Remember to constantly use the parking brake, keep the calipers clean, do not allow dirt buildup in between the parking brake lever & the caliper housing. Pull the calipers at least once a year & inspect them, ensure the sliders are moving freely. Seeing as the piston is an internal item & is protected by an external dirt shield they do not usually seize because of external dirt or corrosion, but they will seize due to lack of maintenance, where the brake fluid has not been flushed on a regular basis. Keep this in mind...brake fluid is hygroscopic, that means it attracts moisture, moisture gets into the caliper bore, works on all of the metal parts, flush the fluid & do it regularly. I can't speak for anyone else but I still have 30 year old calipers on my car, they are kept painted & clean, even tho the car sees very limited use nothing gets neglected.

well technically it started in 1994 on everything except lumina, with notable exceptions of the 95+ lumina/MC reverting back to drum for awhile on base models (should give you an idea of how confident gm was in their old calipers ) and then went as late as 1997 on the cutlass that was kept on the gen1 platform and was it 98? or 99? when the 1.5 gen lumina/MC was discontinued. where it starts is kinda odd and where it ends is kinda fuzzy.

Today I learned that '96 cars have a different caliper design than the prior years.

They are absolute trash. Perhaps in less corrosion prone areas of the world they last better... not sure what part you're from. Yeah the vacuum boosters are junk. It was you who brought the issue to my attention... since I replaced the one in my Z34 its never stopped better. I can only beat stuck slide pins out of the housing so many times. I tried the parking brake thing helped but never really fixed the issue. I'm quite happy that you've never really had the amount of issues with them that most people have had. Since I've changed to the 96' redesign calipers I've had about one failure total over the years. Got to the point where I just banked on replacing them yearly whenever they inevitably got locked up and ruined a set of pads/rotors. Back in the day Autozone was really regretting that lifetime warranty

I've legitimately never heard of any difference between the horrid 88-93 calipers.