The problem appears to be DLC-related, as it began to occur frequently after the introduction of the Velkhana Palamute Armor DLC, which people were able to add to their Steam libraries for free by using a special time-limited promotional link. It appears that the additional DLC caused the game's DRM to hiccup in the version 14.0.0.0, causing the game to crash on exit.
If done as instructed, the workaround will force the DRM to re-evaluate the game and fix any lingering license issues that appear to be related to the exit crash.

If the workaround fails, a successful exit without a crash can still be achieved by exiting the game to the main menu first, before exiting the game.