I had the same issue with both B1 and B2. Server would start, I would be able to create an account in launcher but after clicking "Start Game" EFT would launch and would get stuck with main menu never loading.
Tried reinstalling SPT-AKI, tried playing a few games on Official client before making a copy of the game, tried cleaning the temporary folders and anything else I could think of.
Finally got it working by updating to B2 and extracting not only "Server" and "Launcher", but also "Modules" into my copy of EFT. Game launched, was greeted by faction selection screen and so far it seems to be working as intended.
Hope this helps.
