HappyFunBall, and the card I use is listed as a Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM) in device manager. The driver details property sheet show version 80.0.0.3, and the drivers are digitally signed by Microsoft.
I realize that having to change your system configuration to play is a pain, and Tulga Support personnel will be the first to tell you that you shouldn't have to. You said earlier that customer support was friendly and helpful and that you are a principal software engineer. Your debugging skills of determining a work-around to the problem attest to your chosen profession.
Creative Labs has a *lot* of employees, as does Microsoft. These and other companies have dedicated people who are constantly developing products and updating the drivers for them. Anyone of these folks could make a change at any time that might affect gameplay of a particular software on a computer. A great example is DirectX. Leading edge games use the later versions for added effect, but some cards still can't play them because their drivers don't support the new features, such as shader models. Add to the complexity that fact that all these guys have to play nice with each other to get anything to work and you start to get the impression of how amazing it is that anything does. Keeping a product running in the changing and multitude of environments out there is a job in itself, much less adding content and enhancement to your own product. If Congress only worked half as well...
I am not making excuses for Tulga or its software. I'm just reminding you of what they and any other small business is up against in the software industry. I'm very sure they will get it fixed as soon as they can.