A. Still good
I think it's still good. It used to be better but the UK version of the office got worse over time as well.
B. In any way currently similar to what the UK version was.
A lot of the characters are almost identical. Micheal/David, Dwight/Gareth, Dawn/Pam, Jim/Tim, etc. I haven't liked how the U.S. version have been so focused on Jim and Pam.
The UK version was only 14 episodes, though. It didn't have a chance to get THAT bad.
And yes, a lot of them started off the same, but as the series has gone on, a lot of them have been almost TOO "fleshed out" to keep it fresh. All the clever surprises are gone, and now it's turned into a formulaic dramedy.
I'd also say that Ricky Gervais > Steve Carrell in this particular role. For some reason he just comes off as a much more credible guy to actually exist as a manager. One of the beauties of the UK version is that you really didn't to suspend your disbelief very much at all. These were all characters that you could really see existing. The US version has gotten to the point where it's almost impossible to expect that a guy like Michael Scott actually would make it that long at a branch office in a company.
Plus the Pam/Jim thing really stinks. There's no tension there anymore, which was what made the show interesting. The minute they got together, I think the shark was jumped for the office.