I know this is the worst option for a lot of you, but I am still in the first town of the game.

I doubt a dev is even available to answer this, but I am wondering if I get the patch and completely start over, will that work?

I basically restarted last night because of a bad trait choice and SPECIAL, so I guess I can restart again if it will work.

They said that over 200 fixes are in the patch. It will certainly help a lot to start over. I think a lot of the bugs stem from other bugs. Cascading is a good word for it. One bug creating other problems that continue to grow / cause other bugs. I'm planning to start over even though my saves are working fine, long after completing the Come Fly With Me quest. I've never had problems entering or leaving casinos. Boone gets his rifle back when getting our guns taken. Boone has never disappeared. Everything's fine, which is why I think one or more early bugs create trouble down the road.

But I'm still starting over. I'm going to transfer my save over to a USB stick, just in case, and delete all saves.

Perhaps, but we shouldn't have to restart the game. This is bull$***!!!!!!