Let me tell a story. 
Nearly 2 years ago, when I first started using ST3, I ran into a major hurdle. It froze up so bad after my first week of using it, which was also my first week of learning programming in general. I re-installed it several times, but could not get it to unfreeze. It was oddly permanent. I used IDLE for the next month.
I came back to ST3 again after that month, re-installed it, and it was still frozen upon start. It was such a weird issue. I eventually found something online talking about frozen ST3 and the auto save session files, and how clearing them could help. Tried it, but it would just freeze again after about 10 minutes after starting up ST3 again. It drove me crazy. Not because I was angry with ST3, but because nothing was making sense. It worked great for that first week, then went into a permanent freeze state? I still don’t understand to this day.
I used some hacky logic to put this together: Somehow, the session file was related to the freeze in some way shape or form. I assumed hot_exit was creating session files as it should, in order to save my work in the event I didn’t. Therefore, if I disable hot_exit, maybe I can treat the symptom and at least use this awesome editor I was so attached to. I was still trying to figure out if I liked ST3, damnit!
I don’t remember the exact steps or the order I did them in, but after clearing my session files again and disabling hot_exit, I never experienced that freezing issue again. I still don’t know if my logic was sound or not, but I swear on everything I believe in that this is true: I used it without issue for 1 week, then it was permanently frozen for 4 more weeks (persisting through re-installs and clearing session files), and immediately after disabling hot_exit and clearing out my session files again, the problem mysteriously vanished.
(This was on Windows btw)
I’ve disabled hot_exit ever since then, out of habit and fear. If I have a blank preferences, it’s the first thing I add. However, about a month or so ago, I decided it might actually be helpful (lol who would have thought). I’m no longer on Windows and we have ST4 now, so I have no reason to not use it. And I am so glad I decided to use it again.
My PC has been crashing more frequently lately. Something about amdgpu ring errors or whatever. It used to only happen once a month at most, but now it’s more like once or twice a week. And hot_exit is saving my ass all the time. I just finished hard-resetting from another system crash, and even though I wasn’t surprised that my work was still there, I was grateful that it was. And I just wanted to tell Sublime HQ that you’re the only text editor for me, I’m extremely grateful for all the work you put into it, and you have the best customer support I’ve ever seen.
10/10 would recommend to a friend (and have (and they hate me because I never shut up about ST)).
Yes, old feature, old news. But it’s kind of a new feature for me, anyway. I don’t know, I just wanted to share and remind you guys that you’re appreciated.