It's typically not a good idea to leave ANY option on indefinitely as you always run a chance of hitting some kind of cutscene or level transition or boss fight or 100 other different things that bump into the memory location of the option(s) and can cause crashes. It's best to leave it on just for when you absolutely need it and then turn it off.
understood. and i just discovered what exactly was causing the crashes--the game saves automatically a bit TOO much. so much so that if hit the option while it's saving, that alone would crash it. so now i know not to select that option during one of those auto-saves. it does auto-save every time i pick up a resource, so from now on, i'll keep a sharp eye on that auto-save animated icon whenever i want to go invisible. appreciated the help, PWizard! finally, i can put that to rest! =)