B.I.W.
Because It's Windows.
It's got nothing to do with open source. Windows crashes. Fact of life.
Sometimes it blue screens and tells you it has halted the system because of a corrupt driver. Nothing to do with Firefox.
Open programs and files are affected when this happens. Only a fool doesn't do backups.
I do backups all the time, but never of some tiny portion of my drive like just the browser. I usually do full image backups by schedule, that have individual file restore capability, and always to external devices or media. Anything less is kidding around.
Yup. That's why I shared how this can be done under Linux in the hope that someone might see it, and implement it as a part of their regular routine especially since it is so easy to implement as a script. I appreciated your contribution for the same reason.
It's also not just a BIW thing. When you upgrade by a major (and sometimes minor) version, Mozilla/Firefox may well update some values in your configuration to reflect changes in how the software does some things. If, for some reason, you decide that the upgrade wasn't really as ready for prime time as you thought, being able to restore your mozilla setup exactly as it was before can be the difference between things working, and not after you move back to the previous version.
It also provides an opportunity to create a snapshot of a configuration that is portable across systems, as well as a means of enabling you to test multiple browser versions easily.
Some people hang out on these forums just to kick up dust. Others actually contribute to discussions and try to help people out where they can.