WTF is with gamers nowadays. Games used to be all about skill, where someone that jumped in on day 1 who was a better gamer could mop the floor with the perma-nub that had been flailing his way through a game for 3 months.
Grind in crpg mod and grind in general are two different things. In crpg, I've never had a feeling that I'm grinding because its gameplay is so intense and epic. You grind in stupid WoW clones because you actually do something super boring to achieve stats which will allow you to do something less boring in the future (PvE games are boring, no matter what lvl you are).
There is a way to fix flaws previous patch had (high agi spammers) and that doesn't have to be upkeep system. Instead of making changes he did, chadz could balance gear and put skill req for every type of gear (armor - IF, melee - PS, xbow - PD) and put reqs for high tier gear pretty high (f.e. 9 PS for flamberge, 8 PS for cookie/tears and so on). That would make knights slow in both ways (moving speed and fighting speed) and give skilled fighters wearing less gear an edge over them. Horses could be toned as well. Most things could have been fixed that way. But that doesn't have much to do with Strategus part which seems to be main interest of mod maker, does it ;)
Also, as a self proclaimed archer hater I must say that cut damage for bows is stupid decision. Lowering the damage is reasonable but there is no way arrows do cut damage. I like pierce dmg on morningstar tho, kinda op but realistic.