compact coral
I mean that depends on who you're talking to.
The devs have told us that data like income and relationships and etc. will transfer over with all the EA patches.
However we've already seen two incidents (Xbox Game Pass & this last Whoopsie Released Patch By Mistake) where save files have been lost forever.
You're probably going to get people answering based on one of these two information sources, but basically the devs hope to have this as seamless as possible, whereas some Acts of Godless have caused a lot of people to get frustrated.
sudden yoke
since it's EA always assume you will, and consider being lucky if not. that's what you subscribed for, remember? if sad - better wait for release
compact coral
A lot of people don't understand what Early Access is, so I can't fault people for "what you subscribed for" -- it's a shame we've all paid cash for the game and it's buggy, but buggy is indeed expected. You can always wait and play other games, or you can risk it and have some fun.
Honestly the risk is worth it, in my opinion. I've had a lot of fun. And if my game crashes, so what? Now I know a lot about the game and next run I'll make my farm even better and won't make as many mistakes. Win-Win-Lose-Win.
Also if you're on PC, you can always use WeMod to get all your cash/relationship/etc. stuff back in a day, it's not really cheating if it's in Early Access and you're just resuming your hard work. 😉
lavish bay
I decided to start making copies of my save after every gameplay. When they accidentally released that update earlier this week I was able to drop my old save in no problem without losing it. Hope that suggestion helps in case something happens to saves in the future