Of course, in fact, I managed to recreate the crash. It triggers after the dialogue windows open and, as I said before, you only get enough time to read the first word. It's the stage you access from the stairs that spawn outside of Heroboy's house. Here's the error message.
As for your other questions, I did jump down the bottomless hole, got the spin-off game ending and then restarted and went back to get the card.
As for the characters, apart from what I already said, I noticed how most of them seem to be at least partially aware of their role but are also unable to change it. Some characters are explicitly stated to not be creations by Dietz but he also says that he never got a publishing deal either so it shouldn't be executive meddling either. Perhaps an unseen player?
Flobbert might be important, I suspect a cat bias is at play.
The last note I have is that I liked Gargabelle. it's a shame that you have to shoot her with the ghost gun to turn her into an abomination later.