I also experienced the bug where you get softlocked from entering the apartment while being caught, and the speed upgrades too. I think they did apply but they don't show up in your upgrade menu and they need to be rebought whenever you restart the game.
The insta-alert thing also happened to me but not just on windows, it happens at random around once per day with any targets you try to photograph. So some women just alert and aren't possible to photograph.
Also yeah the bar minigame is way easier, personally I think there should be more minigames (maybe specific games are associated with specific types of photos) and they should get harder whenever you are taking a photo of higher rarity.