How to handle Default app crashing when starting

Question

I am currently developing an application that we intend to be able to run on Windows 10 IoT Core.

Twice during the development cycle, I've faced a scenario where the app would either crash during initialization, or would fail to start due to a dependency not being there such as Microsoft.NET.CoreRuntime.1.0.appx

For a desktop computer app, this is usually easy to correct, but when it's on the IoT device, and If I have it set to be the default app, the device will reboot after each crash.

Because of this, I have a frame of about 1 second where I can connect to the device and attempt to set the Default app to something else, so I can stabilize it. It is quite difficult to do this in the time frame. I've had to re-flash these devices before.

It's at its worst when I'm running it on a dragonboard 410c, but I also run it on a Rasperry Pi 2, and have observed the same issue.

Is there a way to stabilize the device without re-flashing it?