"Next week is actually devoted ENTIRELY to cleaning up crashes and memory leaks, so please, the more info everyone can send our way, the better!"
Now there is some serious good news! Yee haaaa. Don't mind us if we hold you to that.... 
My experience has been that if I just do the basic creation elements, my Sov works, saves and loads.
My first Sov creation CTD occured when I had the basics done, then went to alter his Gear. No sooner than I gave him Boots( I think) CTD.
Another issue is if you do get him to Save depending on which items you selected or changed from the Default Sov's that Sov will not load ever again. I need time to compare the Stardock built Sov's vs my own. I will report back...
So for now. My Sovs all where slippers or whatever they start with.