It would have been better to release a basic, playable version first, so that people could at least play the game. And then, experiments and new features could be added in beta or gamma versions for testing. As it is, new features are being added, which may create new bugs. And there seems to be no end to these bugs.

Actually, yes. I have similar thoughts.

What if all the new features were made into a separate, large package? And the existing 3.0x version could be fixed for bugs, so that it could be played reliably. So that it would be as stable as 2.98, or even better.

And if there is stability, then you can add the package of new features (which may create a new wave of bugs) and continue testing it there.

As it is, the situation is that a player installs version 3.x, it starts to glitch, and he says, "No, I don't need this."
After all, in an online game, "auto-save" is a very sensitive and problematic topic.
Saying that you used auto-save because your mod crashed will sound like an excuse to many. Many won't even say it if it happens to them, because they know they won't be told directly, but they will at least think about it. And they will either continue playing (using auto-save), or they will restart, or they will give up, but in all cases, it is very unpleasant. And it discourages people from using version 3.
Especially auto-save in a tournament...

But to say, I currently have the latest version, and it's working fine. It's running without a single crash so far.