Hmm. Do you think there would be anyway to trick the game into getting over 50. May seem weird and I have next to no mod knowledge so this is purely guess work. But...

Let's say your on 49 provinces, for this example we will be the Brutii. You've hammered back the Macedonians back to Sparta and Athens. Now what would happen if you managed to get them to be a protectorate? Your province count would jump straight to 51 provinces not 50. Perhaps this could skip the trigger that causes to ctd????

Puely guess work and probably wouldnt work. But if somebody has time and patients it might be worth a try...