Why do I have to reboot to use the USB ports?

[minesheep]

I'm not willing to go to 4.4 unless I have a good reason

Isn't it a good reason to your fix usb problem, you don't need to reinstall just use lite upgrade and it upgrades in about 2-60 minutes and should keep your own files untouched, but because anything can fail anytime it is recommended to make backup before. I have used lite upgrade for about 15 times and never had any problems with it