MasterW: Yeah it sucks and there is no workaround. You would expect a patch from FriEveBuild2707 to 1.53 but there is not. If you installed the FriEveBuild2707 patch you're screwed.
Decided it was not worth the trouble and download the 1.53 full game offline installers. Uninstalled the game, choose to keep the saves (make a backup to be sure!) and installed 1.53, then update to 1.54. Works flawlessly although it takes way too much time and bandwidth.
Not to mention after several patches, the old patches are blasted into oblivion, never to be seen again. So if patches are rapidly released, for example 1.50 to 1.51b, then all patches currently online are useless. I had to trawl through the internet to find the 1.5 to 1.51b... will be checking regularly and backing them all up, that's for sure.
If anyone needs it, PM me.