Hello,
Sadly, storage breakage is a Firefox issue. Addons these days can't access drive or database directly, they only instruct browser to store or load data. If thumbnails are missing, it's likely result of a broken IndexedDB database.
More info:
https://github.com/fastaddons/GroupSpeedDial/wiki/Fixing-broken-dials-page

Regarding the Pro version, well it's to cover the development cost. Since I'm not payed by Mozilla, I have to earn money somehow, and most of my addons are free, so this one is the only one that actually keeps me and my work alive :).
It's a pretty bad paying job being an addon developer, that's for sure :(.

Best Regards,
Juraj Mäsiar

Hello,
Only these features are payed:
https://github.com/fastaddons/GroupSpeedDial/wiki/PRO-version-features
Everything else is free, which should be a huge majority :)
Best Regards,
Juraj Mäsiar

Hello,
I'll fix the broken popup search in the upcoming release.
If there is more issues with the last release, please let me know! I'm working on several issues now and I plan to release it in upcoming days.
Best Regards,
Juraj Mäsiar

Hello,
Could you write me email with more details?
Ideally exact steps to reproduce the issue.
If I can reproduce it, I can fix it in the upcoming release.
Note that by default, first group is opened (unless another group is marked as default). But I did changed the popup so I may have break something...
Best Regards,
Juraj Mäsiar

Hello,
Please follow these steps:
https://github.com/fastaddons/GroupSpeedDial/wiki/Fixing-broken-dials-page
That should fix all issues with the dials page.
But it's strange, the long loading time has been reported only long ago and only in Chrome (it was an issue in Chromium).

Best Regards,
Juraj Mäsiar