Thanks for the hint @ronan ducluzeau (zeauro), but still it's a weird user experience that I have to set non-zero Surface Thickness when plane has no rotation, but once Plane is rotated(either X or Y axis) it works even without non-zero Surface Thickness.

I'm having the same problem(version ed32db06c124 from 16 dec 2019), but do I understand well that you're able to get it working(particles generated) if start frame is set to 1? It seems so from your description... in my case whatever I set as start/end frame it doesn't generate particles at all.

@Jeroen Bakker (jbakker), @Clément Foucault (fclem)
It seems that any object placed other than to (0,0,0) is having this issue. In the attached file just reset plane's position(ALT+G) and problem is gone.

Thank you for the explanation Campbell,

Oh, you're right Campbell, I overlooked that part. Still, it doesn't make any sense to me why only keymaps, addons, default startup,themes... should be allowed and not whatever setting in user preferences. Yes, users can still control any of user settings(eg. in Interface tab) via API, but the same way users can control via Api, those(keymaps, addons...except splashscreen), which are now allowed via app. templates. I don't understand this separation.

Confirmed, nightly build works fine, thanks.

Thnx for the quick reply aligorith,