I created a new game, and ignored a couple errors after race creation (can't remember them). I did edit some race characteristics when I made it.
Now about 5 months in, and I'm getting several dozen "Function #1414: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. " errors per time increment. If I click or enter through them, I still could technically play the game, since I can't find what's causing the error and things seem to be behaving otherwise normally as far as I can tell.
On a Win7 machine. I tried to replicate the bug, and turning off the real systems in game creation seemed to create the same game generation errors while changing or not changing the race seems not to, but I have not yet managed to replicate the 1414 errors. I now recall that in my first game I tried to SM add some military academies to my homeworld (to seemingly no effect), so that may or may not be related.