Same here. Within a second or two of opening, Opera freezes or crashes (even with no tab loaded besides speed dial), unless I disable ABP or put the phone in airplane mode before opening Opera. None of my other browsers have the slightest problem with ABP.
I agree, ABP is pretty much a must, nowadays. Between this, and the "we'll add it back someday" dropped Opera Link support in Opera Mobile, I've nearly had it with Opera Mobile. For that matter, after years of using Opera Desktop (all the way back to actually paying for it) I may switch away from that too if they don't restore everything lost in the Chromification. It's baffling to me how for both desktop and mobile, they "temporarily" removed features that made Opera most stand out to begin with. With the indefinite hiatus on Opera Mobile's Link support, Opera has dropped from being perhaps the first to have bookmark synchronizing, to being nearly the only mobile browser NOT to have it.