I think that's the big thing here. Sure, I could start the game over, make 100 different saves - save on this HDD, save on that flashdrive etc., and try avoiding some quests that seem to popularize the bug (Vault 3, Space Suit, Come Fly W.Me) - but I think most of just don't want to lose our original character. Nobody does as thorough of a play-thru after their first. You think I'm going to trudge through ever metal box and nook and cranny like I did my first time around?

Now, the save files (for me) aren't actually listed as corrupted. I don't think there is anything wrong with that save. The save and how the game saved it seems to be perfectly fine. The problem seems to be how the game '-accesses' the save. Maybe there is an specific item in the inventory which causes the game to not be able to load the character up. The patch could simply delete this item. If it is the space suit that is at fault, just delete the damn item, nobody would miss it if it means I can actually start back with my character.

Do we have any arm-chair programmers here with some insight on this?

The item wouldn't be deleted as such but would probably be changed in some way so that any issues that involve that item are erased. The space suit could be erased and re-made but without whatever caused the glitch in the first place. Time will tell whether this will happen or not. So yours isn't corrupted, maybe its time to be more cautious at this stage until there is a patch that covers most of the glitches, keep reading posts on forums to avoid any more quests/ items within the game that could really kill your game save. But you are right, when you try to load the save it needs to process all the information from that save, such as clothing, where you are in the wastelands and the items within the inventory, and logically if there is something in the inventory that isn't right then there can be a failure within the loading process leading to it not being able to load.

So there seems to be two types of problems.

People with actual corrupted save files and those who's saves aren't listed as corrupted, but still won't be able to load because it can't detect the DLC/or save service device.

Because most of these saves don't seem to be actually corrupted and only experiencing DLC errors, I think they will work after the patch. I've noticed a few people are under the impression this error means their save files are actually corrupted, but it doesn't really look like they are. I'm sure some are suffering the issue with actual corrupted files, but the "missing DLC" error, that doesn't seem like corrupt saves. I hope it comes out soon, though.

Yeah, it doesn't seem so much as the save itself is corrupted, rather whatever method the game uses in checking and loading saves is the problem.