While I doubt there are any Minecraft Alpha players out there like myself
Playing since Alpha 1.1 I personally don't see anything wrong with IC2 Experimental, it adds a lot more stuff and makes the mod more fun. Before the biggest problem I had was that there was no mid-game, there was "I have no resources to build anything" and then there was "I have too many resources now and may as well build my house out of copper and tin blocks". IC1 was fun but had many bugs and looking back was too basic. IC2 was a big improvment but was overall very bland. IC2 Experiemental adds a lot more processing and a lot more options (Solars arent the only good option, you can power with geothermal, biofuel, coal, nuclear, ect) I think the biggest problem is mod compatability, its not up to the mod authors to make these mods balanced, its up to you to balance out the mods. If your playing with 80 mods, disable all the other ore generation so you don't have 8x the copper and tin and so on. And don't use those "overpowered" mods unless they are essential. No Equivilent exchange, no mystcraft lava / uumatter realms, no set and forget ore generation/ power gen. Its up to you to make it enjoyable. Too hard or grindy? Make it playable by lowering EU requirement for UU or increase ore generation. Too easy? Ease up on the mods or ore generation or just avoid the gear that makes you invincible within one day of playtime. Personally IC2 + BC for automation and its good, you either run into resource problems, diamond problems, EU or MJ problems, ect. Always a problem, always a solution, keeps it interesting and fresh.