It's interesting that the recommendation not to use Count with River(s) stems from the earlier addition of the "immediate" qualifier to the word "u-turns". If they had not added "immediate", there would have been no problem. The RGG rules don't include the word "immediate". We've always played no u-turns at all, and I have been challenged on that.
'Stem' might be too strong a word… that's just how I see it. There may be no causal connection at all.
As a consolation, I would very much like to see a footnote attached to this recommending against u-turns of any kind to prevent potential problems.
You know I can't do that
As someone pointed out earlier/elsewhere, the fork of
The River II builds U-turns into the game; and the more river tiles you use (through the combination of expansions), the more difficult it will be to avoid U-turns altogether.
What I can do is put a footnote explaining that 'immediate' is derived from an FAQ; and point out that the original rule was intended to prevent all possible difficulties. The immediate rule makes laying easier, but can still lead to difficulties, and so it's a commonly accepted 'house rule' to stick with the original and ban U-turns completely.
Something like that…
