This works fine for me. Please give more information.
What is your OS version? Do you have more information about the crash report? How does your playlist look like? Does it work if you only add one simple file to the playlist?
When crashing no crash report is generated. I'm using OSX Lion 10.7.5 on an Intel Core 2 Duo. I've since gone back and reloaded VLC 2.2.8 Weatherwax and everything is now stable and working as it was before. If the OS or hardware are not supported, then I should not have had the option to upgrade.
I did note that after a few attempts in the new VLC I could open any of my Extended M3U playlists I'd already created (in VLC version 2.2.8) and if I made any changes and tried to save those lists it would either crash VLC or would corrupt the M3U file data making the list unreadable.
I also noticed that when playing Mp3s in the new VLC at least for a few seconds playback speed (both speed and pitch) of a file would be altered like someone dragging their finger on a turntable platter before returning to normal speed.
Thanks, mentioning the OS helps a lot, because now I can also reproduce your problem on my old system. (Note that 10.7 is still supported, but we cannot test everything on this old OS version prior to release...).