Yes, several. None is easy except forgetting OS2008.

1. one can have two sets of kernel and initfs images and flash correct one from device before rebooting to another OS200x system, initfs images should be customized to allow booting from correct places.

Kernel can be extracted from firmware image or you already have customized one from other sources, correct initfs.bootmenu.jffs2 should be in initfs_flasher directory in both systems, you just copy them to another OS200x system. True that this is cumbersome and wears off initfs and kernel flash partitions but otherwise quite workable.

2. one can investigate the issue and try to backport WLAN userspace code from newer system (if available) to older one

3. solution 1 can be improved by using kexec mechanism (i.e. boot one kernel from another) and merging both initfs images and select correct part at boot time. This is the hardest one.

Looks like this time we are not lucky and newer kernel and wlan driver breaks something in older system.