On your items:
1) I don't get the point. LapTimer is generally built to utilize several areas were videos are stored. The Photo app is selected as it is the most convenient store for distribution.
2) In case you need to manually sync video and recordings (which should be necessary in selected cases only), you need to try. The end of the lap should be the end of the lap

3) No
4) Please check the "Feature Request Forum", frequent request
5) First choice is to find and fix errors. Building in recovery strategies is sometimes necessary in computer science, but should be done only in cases no other option is available. Every minute I spend in thing like that, miss for the real fixes. v17.0.6 is pretty stable and I try to close any remaining issues. In cases like yours, were the database has a problem, crashes can appear everywhere - which probably generates an impression of general instability.
- Harry