I've been pretty damn happy with DSM5 to be honest. Runs everything I Need, plex etc. Rock solid, no crashes.
While I would love to always update and get that itch, I don't feel like its really that urgent based on how excellent the current build/performance is.
This crap happened to me as well with time backup, locked my whole NAS up. I believe I had to go in and manually force fix a volume and remove the timeapp via terminal.
Glad its being continued. Ironically I was just going to start building a 2nd one for a friend to use and then I went to download files and I couldn't find em.
Love the work and loved the site as well!