It is safe 2.3 for production? I've had some bad experiences with even versions before if my memory doesn't fail
2.3 isn't really "one" version. Some 2.3 are good, other less.
Usually have a glance at the git log. If there weren't any
recent single big commits (ignoring docs, and non code), then it often is good.
Problems likely occur with either new features (when they change existing code), or bigger bug fixes (if they change to much)
recent => because if changes become older, and if they had caused issues, those are likely found and fixed.
There are a few recent changes in the /ide folder => they don't impact your apps. If anything they could affect stability of the IDE.
You would mostly want to see what happened in the LCL and components folders.
You can have both installed. (using a 2ndary install, each has its own config).
Then you can develop and debug under 2.3
And compile releases with 2.2.4
Only make sure, not to use new properties / functions in the LCL => they wouldn't compile in 2.2.4
You can use 2.2.4 and configure it using gdb. That will work and be perfectly save.
Of course debugging quality will be at gdb level.
There also is a mixed (gdb + fpdebug) LazDebuggerFpGdbmi package/debugger, that can give you the best of both worlds (it is a while since I last tested it, but it should work)
And it should not expose the problem, since the part in question would be done by gdb.