Can't go back to previous version

[Galadhatan]

So I don't know when it happened - sometime since October '24 - Shiro must have changed something that won't let me play previous versions. Specifically, before, I would let Steam do its mandatory update on the game, then go into the game files and replace them with the previous version (the one before they nerfed the Horse Clan) which I had downloaded via the steam console. I play solo, just casual games, and I hate what's happened to horse (and the new features don't appeal to me). I've been doing this for over 1.5 years. I stopped playing for a while (got tired of the eternal 1.5kb updates that would force me to redo the revert). Now, when I try to do this, it crashes in "uncaught exception" with a long log-looking window that gives me a change to continue, but which does nothing but repeat itself. Anyone else with this problem? Is it fixable, or is the game just dead for me?

[The Debauchery]

You can't exactly expect support for an old, expired version of the game.
Yeah, it is unfortunate that Steam updates are mandatory... but if the old version has stopped working then you're probably just screwed. Play the up-to-date version or nothing, I guess.

I did the same thing with Elden Ring for ages. I was still on version 1.09 when Shadow of the Erdtree came out. I bit the bullet in the end since there was no new content without accepting the changes. Not much else to do about it.