People were complaining about how a lack of de jure empires potentially was causing crashes upthread. In response, someone released an Empires submod, which allowed for the potential creation of a de jure Empire of America if you met the requirements as well as adding some new de jure empires that previously did not exist. I'd like to make the suggestion to integrate that mod into the main game, with one adjustment in particular.
In a few other mods, and I'm thinking of HIP in particular, there is a decision you can make at the beginning of a game to disable ahistorical empires. I am curious as to whether adding these new de jure empires, but giving the player the option to make their creation impossible at game start, would resolve the crashing issue (if it really was a lack of de jure empires that was the cause).