NFS has plenty of good uses. Maildir works fine, sharing large datasets works fine, sharing static assets works fine, it's widely supported. No need to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just stop putting the baby in boiling water.

NFS is a way to share files, not provide a reliable application platform. There are lots of options you can enable to make it more stable, but it simply isn't designed as an application platform, so it's all going to be hacks.

And keep in mind that NFS is not secure. Supposedly it can be secured, but I have never seen this in a production environment. Running an application over it is just a bad idea from a security standpoint. Home directories over it are a terrible idea from both a security and stability standpoint.

Finally, don't try to change a file and expect stability. If you need a new version of a file with some change to it, make a new file and use that new file path.