I agree that it's the new hotness, but it has a bunch of very handy stuff which makes it worth getting into. Since it isn't exactly a compilation of non-connected blocks, and it actually has a tech tree of sorts, the tendency is to use more of it than you expected when you first started in after that one thing.
Canola/Oil Generation took off because it filled a needed gap in the early game power market. Other early game options include: Immersive Engineering wind and water, which, while passive and free, don't provide much overall power unless you spam them, which isn't exactly efficient either; XU Culinary Generator, which has been done to death and was never a great thematic piece; several forms of coal/charcoal generators, which again have been done to death, and ultimately rely on a decent tree farm; lava power *yawn*; or maybe wait until you can build a small Extreme Reactor like we've done for years. I'm not saying Canola is any better than any of these (except pumping the Nether dry *yawn*), but it's a new engineering challenge with new pieces and new possible mod combinations. New is fresh, and fresh is good. I get the whole, "Ugh, everyone is doing that, so I don't want to" line of thinking, but we can't be expected to be excited doing the same things over and over again - that's why we updated in the first place.
If that's not your cup of tea, there is a Bioreactor akin to the MFR Bioreactor/Biofuel Generator combo which is something slightly different. Up to eight bio products can be used at once with power output going up for each different kind of material pumped in. I don't have hard numbers on it yet, as it's on my "look at" list this world, but I'm thinking it's how I'm going to dispose of farm overflow.
