I've not read the whole thread so maybe someone makes this point but it is worth stating again.
It is very true - sad but true - that every piece of software has bugs and crashes occasionally. What pissed me off having bought GP4 is that it would not run at all. Various new drivers, patches and fixes did not work. The only one that did was the V4 patch which has been withdrawn - luckily I got it when the window was open.
Why do people (yes me included) accept that you can pay a lot of money for software and hardware and then have to spend hours searching through forums and FAQs to make the things work? You wouldn't do it if your Mercedes broke down!