I just spent three hours doing what would have taken 20 minutes in 2.7. Dozens of crashes, insanely slow editing, actions that used to take one click now taking several. Ooof. I’ll wait for a few more versions to come out before I waste another day on it.
Specifically:
Lattices that were fine before, slow my machine to a crawl.
The entire application crashes constantly, but also smaller crashes happen, like tools and features dropping out.
For a while, everything vanished even though it was selected and visible. Another time the orange outline that indicates that an object is selected no longer showed.
And what’s all this with visibility being changed? I can no longer see the vertices through my object when it’s solid? I have to make it wispy and translucent to select vertices on the other side of the model? That’s maddening!
Don’t know about the rest of the things you are complaining about, but Blender very explicitly does not expect that an old version of Blender should be able to open a future version of Blender’s file format and read it correctly. The other direction (open an older-format file in a new Blender) is supported except perhaps at very major version changes (like 2.4x -> 2.5, or 2.7x -> 2.8), though most/most things will work even over those deliberate non-backward-compatible version changes.
I’ve had non of the problems you described (except 2.7 crashing with 2.8 files, but that’s normal behavior). Maybe your hardware is too old? Blender 2.8 has higher system requirements than 2.7.
I experience none of those issues. And my machine is about to reach its 12th year of usage.
Opening newer files in the older 2.79 is expected to be problematic.
What is your hardware?
I’ve been using 2.8 since early alpha. I found that is was crashing a bit through the alpha stage, but when it hit beta, the crashes were significantly reduced. I’ve never gone back to 2.7x series except for when I had to use a spesific plugin that wasn’t updated for 2.8 yet…
I also experienced a slight reduced performance, but the upside is when you get used to the new workflow, it’s actually faster in 2.8 than in 2.7x. If you still experience a lot of crashes even after release, the problem might be located elsewhere in your software setup. just my 5 cents. I wouldn’t have written it off completely before checking into what else could cause problems for you, at least. But if you have no problems with 2.7x series, i can see how that would be the most convenient and fast solution to just continue using that for a while longer…
However, you could run into the same troubles with 2.81 and 2.82 still if the problem is not blender itself. Then you’ll miss out on a lot of cool stuff in the newer versions if you still stay with 2.7x.
Anyways. 
The developers are squashing bugs all the time, so it will keep getting more stable over time… I think they’ve done a splendid job with the 2.8 series so far. I was confused in the beginning when shortcuts started to change around, but using it all the time and also following the blender today series actually rectified my shortcut problems week by week, and now everything is just as easy, or easier in 2.8.
Good luck tho… I hope that things will get better for you with the 2.8 series as fast as possible…
btw. I have to add that I still experience crashes, but I’m using 2.82 Alpha… Comparing to my time in 3dsMax tho, I still have less crashes then I did back then. I used max from version 1.0 through 8… That says a lot.
That is strange, I have been using 2.8 a lot of time now and I don´t have those problems. May be is some incompatibility issues with a driver on your machine or something like that. I use also SolidWorks and once you upgrade and save with a newer version the program won´t let you open the file on a earlier one this seems normal to me too.
No problems here either. I’ve been using 2.80, 2.81 alpha and beta in production and experienced no real problems.
is this a joke? have been doing all my production since alpha in 2.8 and 2.81. Yes, it crashes, once a week 
Have fun opening 2.81 files in 2.5
If your goal is to let some steam off, that’s the way to go. If you are actually asking for help, you need to be way more specific and not clutter everything into one post without enough details.
This sounds like isolated case of hardware related issues, drivers etc. I do not like certain things in 2.8 due to regressions and overhauls but saying that it is not ready is unjust.
Fair enough about putting too many non-specific complaints in one post.
Also a good point about backwards compatibility.
I have a super fast machine with 32 gigs of RAM, so that isn’t it. Maybe it has something to do with it running on a Mac?
I’m talking about things that work smoothly and quickly in 2.7, but have long several seconds delays in 2.8.
For instance, if you have a lattice that effects several objects, editing that lattice in 2.7 would be fine, but in 2.8 you move the mouse a little and wait a few seconds before it moves, then move the mouse again a a tiny bit and wait some more.
I’m not being a hater, I’m a long time fan and supporter of Blender, but there’s no reason to claim it’s perfect.
Editing performance in 2.8 is a known issue. There are a few threads about it, including the bug reports.
I don’t think anyone is claiming that, in general. 
Keep in mind 2.80 was a MASSIVE change to Blender, only meant to serve as a launching point for future planned changes. General issues and edge cases are inevitable and the dust hasn’t fully settled yet.
The problem is that all the hype surrounding 2.80’s launch gives many people the impression that it was the season finale, when really, it was just the first episode.
I have experienced the same thing but chosed to carry on using it.
A lot of RAM does not replace a good graphic card.
How can developers improve blender stability if you don’t even post your specs? A really fast machine could be anything, and no disrespect but usually when someone post anything besides proper specs (dxdiag in pc, Mac I really don’t know) means they are insecure about their hardware.
No one will judge you, and perhaps the devs can say “hey driver X works wonderful with your video card Y”
This is a good idea, on the Octane forums everyone puts their computer specs in their sig. It’s not about bragging rights, it’s about being able to quickly see what system someone has so you can help them more quickly. Also means you don’t have to keep posting your specs all the time.
Indeed, proud owner of a G3258 and 750Ti here 
I’m using a 2.81 build in production and while some things are quirky and a bit incomplete I only get a few more crashes than I did with 2.79, it happens maybe a few times a week and not a daily occurrence. That’s not going to be everyones experience though.
System specs, drivers, buggy addons and corrupted configs are all things that could affect the stability of Blender, aside from the known bugs and limitations of 2.8.
I mean it’s possible your particular area of workflow in Blender is running into all the current bugs there, but it sounds like something else might be causing the instability.
I had all the above problems of the original and more on 2.81 on osx. Still frustrated by some of the UI choices and the extra clicks needed for some simple tasks. Also why the transform widgets are not visible by default i’ll never know…
Things have improved in 2.81 but i guess I just have to put up with the retrograde changes to the UI
Whoop whoop 750ti! Still rocking one of those in my system.