JediJeremy:
First, there's the whole "better read this carefully or we'll delete all your work" part of the IDE upgrade process that craps over anyone who's developed their own libs,
So why not stay with the older version of the IDE - the one used to develop your code? I get the impression that doing so would relieve all of your complaints.
It is easy to have several versions of the IDE on your PC - they are just Java programs.
I agree it is a PITA that the Arduino folks don't bother with backward compatibility.
...R