After Effects 17.6: Error: "itemH cannot be NULL" when using "New Project" Template File.

After updating to 17.6, AE upon launch started showing an error:
After Effects error: internal verification failure, sorry! {itemH cannot be NULL}
( 5027 :: 77 )
I tracked the problem down and found out that this is only happening when I choose to load a template file via Preferences->New Project. 

My template file is nothing but 5 or 6 empty folders (please see attached). 
First I thought that this is because the template file I always use was created in an older version of AE so I re-built this template using 17.6 but still the error persists. 

If I disable "New Project loads Template" Checkbox in Preferences the problem goes away.

Notes: 
#1. The above does not affect my workflow but it's rather annoying seeing an error every time I open AE. 

#2. After AE is already open File->New->New Project does not produce the error message, so only on AE startup.

I would appreciate any suggestions on how to fix this and hopefully avoiding re-setting AE prefs since my workspace is a carefully crafted delicate rainforest adapted tp my muscle memory : )