You're welcome, I'm glad you were able to optimize lfs gfx settings for your PC. Note that you don't need more than 100fps. Lfs runs at 100Hz at the moment, so you even have some headroom to put some of the settings higher than what you have now.
You can start at [AA] Blackwood GTI server and drive XFG, you can ask anyone for car setup and some driving tips. Demo scene is quite popular, so you'll find many good quality populated servers to choose from.
I'm also getting CreateRenderTarget failed warnings on my low end laptop with integrated Intel HD4600 gpu. Most of the times it says mirror, some times environment and ocasionaly something about a wehicle. This appeared since patch U13 if I believe correctly. It is something to do with gpu feature that is not supported I guess, but it's not a big deal since the game runs normaly.
Bad packet error sounds like an invalid packet was sent most probably, so check your lapper code again. The other one packet from invalid UCID 20, try to figure out what has this ID and you may find more details about error.
How can you say something like that? Of course that it matters on other things than just this. It depends very much on which type of storage device lfs runs on and also the overall system stability and health. Not counting external drive devices, it's: pata HDD < sata HDD < sata3 HDD < sata3 SSD < NVme SSD. Not enough RAM or not well optimized system clogged with many startup apps, basicaly anything that consumes system resources in that particulair moment may be resposible for the freezes.
I yet have not noticed majority of issues you are mentioning, related with lfs freezing or crashes. It's not reasonable to assume that something is wrong with LFS if it only shows up very rarely and only on 1 or 2 PC's.
My firmware is compatible with Arduino ProMicro as well. All you have to do is attach a pot to it and upload one HEX file and that's it, it's plug and play and ready to go.
You can also try to find which view gives you most fps. The one where you only see tyres, or when you press F, the force view is also very fps friendly.
I thought it was obvious - I was sarcastic about non-car machines
On the serious side, the subobject physics may lead to a many new features like improved car model physics, falling off parts, dynamic aero elements, mechanical failures and similair.
Rain and snow in LFS is years and years into the feature. It's not comming any time soon, since it has nothing to do with new lighting system and day/night cycle.
Realistic surprize could be the implementation of realistic bike physics. Or adding physics to a moving subobjects, enabling us to create working machines, like planes, caterpilar/crane wehicles.
Knowing the "program" so far, weather is not comming this year. Day/night cycle is already implemented and showcased to us a few years ago, so no surprizes there.