The hoss will definately be able to take up to 10 ft drops. Unless you are really pushing limits the hoss is a lot of bike.
The reason they changed the design was Kona realized that larger riders were buying the roast/stuff series. When they shrunk those bikes into dj exclusive bikes they created the hoss line to fill a gap between xc bikes and out of bounds ht's. Hoss still works for smaller riders looking for a tough bike, they just wanted to really offer something to the clydesdale and ryno riders