Yes pubsub requires is for channels. I just haven't implemented them in rts-pubsub yet, but will do soon. Once finished they will work just like SocketStream 0.3.
rts-livereload doesn't require sessions. If a service doesn't require sessions it will perform faster as no session lookup will be necessary.
As the app developer, all you need to do is specify a session store (or allow it to use the default in-memory store during dev) and you're all set.
Owen