It seems kind of pointless to have the "X" and "#" pattern as though they were different. They both render in the same shape, it's just that one renders 8 of the texture while the other renders 4. I think the "X" pattern render should be replaced with an actual X-pattern, as that would seem to make more sense. For example, the agricraft version of pneumatic craft seeds uses the "X" pattern, however the original crop renders like this.
People that want to cheat can cheat. It's not like NEI has some major problem with that as far as I can tell. It just seems like for testing purposes, a simple command would be nice...