I'll be honest, from what I've seen you post on these forums, this is a surprise. Honestly, I believe that cRPG is only about the grind if
you (the player, that is, not any specific individual) make it about the grind. If the only goal is to get money and gold, and to grind away those ticks slowly and painfully, then one will play poorly, perform poorly, and generally have a poor outlook at the mod itself. If the goal is to have fun, then one will play better (if not well), perform better (if not well), and generally only have xp and gold ticks pop up as a pleasant surprise, and levels as well.
I started out with cRPG when I was quite new to Warband, back when dying next to the group was incredibly important. I had no ability to manually block, I had no understanding of the system, and the mod, as a whole, was generally unpleasant and unrewarding because I was a lackluster player. It wasn't the mod that was bad, it was my mentality as a player at that time (and the fact that I couldn't even die next to a group. I mean, how easy is that?).
In short, whatever choice you make about the mod, however you feel about it, I truly believe is a result of your own, personal mindset regarding it. If that mindset isn't there for a player, then it isn't there -- blaming the mod, from which fun is derived by the player and not some set or system that implants it into the player, simply seems immature and comes off as a rant.
Of course, this came off as a rant too.