If this issue is rated none => minor, and unplayable/untestable by me, are BI prepared to grant me a refund so I can wait for the complete thing??

There aren't that many issues reported for TOM (as for A3) - I'm pretty sure this issue will be fixed sooner or later. But, considering the number of votes, it can't be of high priority. :-)

That looks damn nasty. Could you please try the following and see if any of it helps?

a) Change the 3D resolution slider from 1x to something else in the options menu
b) Change the normal resolution from 1920x1080 or what you have to some other value
c) Turn off aero theme in windows

If none of these help then we'll try something else. But please let me know if these helped in any way.

3D Resolution had no effect.
Changing resolution had no effect.
Changing Aero had no effect.

Turn off full screen did it for me.

Dram, your advice didn't really help. Please look at this - http://youtu.be/U6BaY9is7sw

It has been fixed in dev branch.

I started having this issue after the update before the last. Waited to see if it would be fixed... new update, same issue. The game is completely unplayable.
Is there any ETA on this bug?
p.s. this is NOT a minor bug, it renders the whole game unplayable.