4 months ago - Shurenai - Direct link
Just a note first that I'm jut a forum moderator not a dev (dont wanna cause confusion)

I think it's likely that post 1.0 the saves will be persistent, I can think of ways that, with all the new systems and functions they've built into world gen, poi placement, quests, events, etc, they could ostensibly implement the coming post 1.0 features without necessitating a restart; Plus they're pretty much done doing deep revamps of the world generator, the character data structure, etc; So there's no longer a(s ma)ny things that could lead to a necessitated restart as has been the case in most of the alphas going back.

There's also the possibility that they'll finally allow you to bring a save forward into the new version compatibly, you just may be missing out on certain features that would have required a new save; Allowing you to experience Most of the changes with your existing save, just not all of em.

I can't say 100% for sure as things may pan out differently than I expect, But, I generally lean towards 1.0+ saves having a viable potential for persistence in one form or another.