And as he said, a mod is not just about functionality. Yes you can replace the power network with kinesis pipes... but as has been proven, reproven, and confirmed again and again is that they just do not work the same and one is far laggier than the other. Things are getting better but there is 0 replacement for conduits and energy cells.
IC3 may be improving but their power system is as banjaxed as it ever was, even moreso now.. at least before if you plugged a machine in it would either blow up or be fine, and if it was fine you knew that it would continue to be fine until you fucked around with the power source. Now you can plug it in, watch it be fine, and then blow up for some stupid assed reason.
I don't play much on 1.6 mainly for the lack of TE and MFR. I originally felt the same about RP2 when moving to 1.5.2, but got over it, as I knew I would be spending a LOT of time waiting for it. But now, we know there is an official fork (which PC is aware and happy with) for MFR, and TE is being worked on, both by modders that don't pull dissapearing acts I feel that I can wait. And yeah, I may screw around with 1.6 until then, but in no way do I expect to have more fun than I did in 1.5.2, which imo, is the best version modded minecraft has ever had.
1. Install Minecraft 1.6.2/1.6.4
2. Add the mods that are listed here as alternatives
3. Test the builds that you are concerned about
4. If it doesn't work, try to find another solution with the mods you have
5. AFTER that, if it still doesn't work, start complaining