I'm starting to wonder if these issues are related to the recent update process. People have mentioned the really large file size, about 80GB, when it was said to about 32GB or so. I get the program from GOG using the offline installer files only. There was no interim patch for #7.
This means that I could not update. I had to reinstall the game. I deleted some folders at paths I know the game uses but if I missed some, in not so obvious places, then it is possible that the new install may be using old data that is making things worse.
Since other people have reported such large "update" sizes I wonder if they too, even through their game managers (Steam & Galaxy), maybe, have ended up with mixed data from patch 6 and 7.
GOG tells me I downloaded version:
v4.1.1.1467041
but in game tells me:
v4.1.1.1466805
...curious.