That sounds similar to how I lost all my apps. I left one open and closed the desktop. Then opened the desktop to launch another app and everything crashed and wiped all the new installed apps.

I'm now careful to close any open app to return to the desktop and the close that.

Just a thought - since the Palm O/S is not really multitasking, perhaps when one app is open (w/o the desktop) and then the desktop is launced to open another app, it doesn't know about the previously open app and everything crashes. ie: it doesn't know that it is supposed to close the open one first?