Regarding Visual freezing bug: your statement that "it's very unlikely to happen more than once in a playthrough" seems a bit inaccurate.
I have been playing the game for two hours and it happened at least 10 times, I really have lost count.
It can happen at any time. Most frequently, the text box freezes and you can't continue a dialogue, you just need to start over.
Other times where it did occur: when beating Stella at the DFA battle, or just roaming around in the casino.
I am now saving the game at the end of each dialogue. I'll keep playing until the end because I really like everything about this game. I would have bought the Steam version too, but not with this sort of bugs.