I find that really unfortunate. I think alternative implementations should be encouraged.
While i know there are many alternative full node implementation, it's not easy to recommend those. I can't really recommend anything besides Bitcoin Core when i don't know how reliable it is and i can't give any specific advice if they experience any trouble.
I'm aware, and the following question is not rhetorical: Do any other implementations see significant use by miners?
We don't even know if miner still use Bitcoin Core. When Bitcoin-Qt (previous name of Bitcoin Core) has code for mining which default behavior allow some 0-fee transaction on block, many pool doesn't seem to follow that behavior.