There is probably a lower limit, which I don't see documented anywhere (I would hope it is more than 64). In your picture, it indicates that you had 24 running processes, when you clicked optimize. That blindly calculates 36, as being 50% more. If the system needs 37 (or more) processes, to get itself booted (which you can't see), you are dead in the water.
The OS2KRNL thing is old, and probably not very smart about what it suggests for optimization. Even starting all of the programs that you plan to run, and adding 50%, is likely to be insufficient, at some point. I suspect that the OS2KRNL thing is one of the (many) reasons why ArcaOS doesn't include the full XWorkplace package. It needs major updates, or it needs to be replaced. Meanwhile, if you use it you need to understand what you change, and why, or you may have problems (as you have seen).