Maybe. For some users, such as myself, the answer is no, it will not start without crashing. For other users, the answer appears to be yes, it works fine. I have not found the conditions that would let me determine which group you will be in.

Thanks advowson, I appreciate the reply. Since the crashing happens because of some dial-home issue, I'm not inclined to find out whether I'll be the next lucky consumer.

Yes. Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion v1.90 is completely broken for me, just as v1.84 was. The fault address is different, but it still crashes on startup. Context for v1.90:

CS:0023 SS:002b DS:002b ES:002b FS:0063 GS:006b
EIP:00438216 ESP:0033fc74 EBP:0033fcdc EFLAGS:00010202( R- -- I - - - )
EAX:00000000 EBX:00000000 ECX:008044e4 EDX:00000000
ESI:00804a98 EDI:007a47f8

Stack:
0x0033fc74: 0042d8f4 001d15f0 0042d8b7 00000001
0x0033fc84: 00487bdc 007a47f8 0033fcf3 7eb4de40
0x0033fc94: 0033d688 00c3a7f0 bf800000 bf800000
0x0033fca4: 0043fe09 0033fda0 7eb4de40 0033fcf3
0x0033fcb4: 00960a5c 00874710 00000639 0043f694
0x0033fcc4: 00812994 0033fcf3 7eb4de40 00960db8

The fault is still an attempt to read from a null pointer. The fault occurs before the splash screen appears. The game displays a Windows message box with a path to a dump file. The file is tiny: 2661 bytes.

Test procedure:

Start Sins-v1.83 to confirm that no system updates have rendered the previously-working game broken. Sins-v1.83 starts correctly. [Recap for those who joined the thread late: Sins-v1.83 runs fine; Sins-v1.84, Sins-v1.85, and Sins-v1.86 all crash at startup. Newly released Sins-v1.90 is under test.]
Attempt to install Sins-v1.90. Fail because the installer assumes that all the space occupied by the existing Sins-v1.83 will remain used, and thus the drive would not have enough space. (In reality, the installer would have overwritten/replaced these files, so they should not count toward the space required.)
Remove Sins-v1.83 from the system to satisfy the installer.
Run installer.
Start Sins-v1.90.
Crash.

Installed from (sha256 sums):
8290096ec699579b95f5870c7c35d84a9899789783bef1e642a0212b4aff913e setup_sins_of_a_solar_empire_-_rebellion_1.90_(11025)-1.bin
e6596f511ca3faec8d5df41298ed7263f07262cd4de3bbc40a120797ecaa961b setup_sins_of_a_solar_empire_-_rebellion_1.90_(11025).exe

If there is more useful information I can provide, please ask. I would like to see Ironclad actually fix this game so that it can be played. I just have no patience with the GOG support desk, who have demonstrated their absolute certainty that all problems are the user's fault, and cannot possibly be a defect in the underlying product.