Everything you have outlined here is exactly the case for me as well. My most recent saves are also leagues above the previous ones, with only a few mod changes. I've gone as far as deactivating every single mod, and still freeze then crash within 2 minutes. Leading me to believe that I have garbage scripts corrupting those saves. I'm curious to know whether you ever found the direct cause in your case. I might clean out my mod list, and attempt a more minimalist approach. I'm sitting at around 75 active plugins--down from 80 yesterday, which seems to be the most common tipping point for most users. In any case, I'll likely have to start a new playthrough now, but not until I have a mod list that I am satisfied with, as my daily fiddling seems to be the source of my woes.
