Honestly people don't let fear paralyze you....
GW 1.1/1.2 Totally safe....no one had ever seen this problem.
GW 2.01b - Appears to be safe, it has been out for weeks and no one ever complained of a brick. It is a little buggy but I never had the troubles with it many complained of using both gateway and classic mode and 6.3 emunand. Its still on my 3DS and I am playing retail Pokémon X (with 1.1 patches offline) and had zero problems.
GW 2.02b - Ok so we have 1 user here and 'possibly' some others that say they have bricked while using an actual Hash checked launcher out of what thousands of users? So if you are scared go to 1.2 or 2.01b (without emunand) and you are going to be fine. I still have my XL on 2.02b with Emunand and have had no problems....I don't think it is Russian roulette as that is a 1 in 6 chance of getting killed and running Gateway 2.02b is like a 1 in thousands chance of bricking a device.
For you dirty, filthy, cheapskate clone users (joking as really who cares)
V2.0 based on GW 1.2 would appear to be safe......again been out a long time and no one got bricked.
V3.0 Not much benefit as you can't get 6.3 anymore but can run Zelda, Batman, Bravely and a few others without emunand
V3.1/3.2 Avoid like the fricking plague.
Also don't use the damned region mod for classic mode either!
The OP could easily be a troll or plant (not saying you are as you seem genuine) but 'faking' this brick or being a Gateway user that bricked is simple as pie as others have stated. This little 'clone' war has gotten stupid and nasty. The cloners are really most at fault as they distributed ripped off code as their own to their users without testing it and confirming it was safe. They also have not made any statement.....just pulled 3.2 and replaced it with 3.3b which is really 2.0. As soon as this was known they should have at least made a statement on their website saying stop using beta 3.1 and 3.2. They didn't have to say why just that it was causing problems....still no statement.
Gateway is the only team really giving us anything of use on the 3DS scene. They brought a working cart, the brought region free, emunand for 6.3 and 7.1, and have shown Nand game saving. No one else has done shit on their own other than modify Gateway code or show us a one screen unsigned code demo. I have liked that they are straightforward and delivered on what they have promised so far. I just wish they hadn't done this as it damages the confidence in their product by current users and potential customers. What is does show is Gateway is 'boss' and has pretty good command of the 3DS. I guess this is a case of Gateway giveth and Gateway taketh away!!!