I admit I don't check mametesters. I rarely would report anything and its front-page it's a big turn off: "We'll evaluate first if you are worth our time so meanwhile go bug Mame Chat".
These bugs not being mentioned before tells so much about how often users make use of softlists which is a shame. Now that both projects are merged this will change though. The cdrom crash exists even before I asked about why MESS didn't prompt for a cartridge just like MAME empty driver does.
I hope I'm not sounding ungrateful or anything, it's a relief I could be of some help. I appreciate the response and it's a good thing mere questions never intended as requests will be fixed next release. At least for me this will turn into a more enjoyable MAME experience.