Sorry I was just mentioning about softlock because the preferences bug, I will tell them how to solve instead:
On windows press WIN + R and paste this:
%USERPROFILE%/AppData/LocalLow/StickyKeys/StarSpawn
then edit your GameData_#.json
I just edited the saved preferences from hContentPreferences\":null to hContentPreferences\":{\"disabledContent\":[]}} and now everything is working fine.
Suggestions:
You should add an extra information in the save file to check the version of the gamesave and when new content are implemented some standard value would be determined in the save or a pop-up would appear for the first time so the player could edit the values by himself (e.g. the new difficulties or the preferences)