Well, I believe both sides of this conversation are perfectly valid; neither side should be shouted down. LH is now working near-perfectly for me, and I've been there since the release of WoM. That said, this was not always the case.
LH 1.0 (and even 1.1) originally gave me the same game-ruining crash it did since my experience throughout all patches of WoM. The dreaded, "DX error: Invalid Call". Even in LH's most recent patch, I got this horrifying error/crash consistently after 15-35 minutes of playing. I've run FAR more graphically-demanding/resource-demanding games than anything Stardock released, at top-quality settings without any problems.
Many, many other people were getting the exact same crash throughout the life cycle of WoM as well as FE (just google "dx error" "invalid call" and see every result specifically discussing WoM and FE for many pages). Many couldn't get FE to play for more than a few turns before getting this specific crash, while no other games were giving them any problems. Nobody on these forums (among tech support and other places) could give a solution that worked. But I believe it has something to do with my video card (ATI 4600), since I've had the same one since WoM.
But before all was lost, I've discovered a solution that actually DOES work!! -- At least it worked for me, anyway. Upon much of my own trial and error, I tried disabling auto-saves. Now, for whatever reason, I have not received the "DX error" once (within 30 hours of actively playing), along with barely any other crashes whatsoever; even with my game now heavily modded. This error aside, LH always ran perfectly for me since the beginning. But now, not having to restart the game constantly has restored my faith with Stardock. And truthfully, I would've given up long ago if I hadn't loved Elemental so damn much to boot.
So if you (Legaceez) or anyone else is getting this specific error,
***TRY DISABLING AUTO-SAVES***. Even if it's another type of crash, I suggest anyone getting constant crashes to try this simple solution. It has saved me a TON of hassle. Upon suggestion, I've also designated the game to "run as an administrator", but I'm not certain if that has helped or not. It certainly has not hurt. So I certainly do sympathize with those who feel the need to rant about this game, even now. It still has its problems, and I know the OP isn't just trying to pointlessly hate on it. I've been there. I wanted this game to work so badly because that's how much I loved it. So I don't think we should just write-off those who are obviously frustrated like Legaceez. They also obviously love the game, and probably have a rig that can run it perfectly fine. But these issues must be addressed. And now that it works just about perfectly for me, I feel like its all been worth it. I hope others like Legaceez can find the solace they need, like I did.
And with that, I bid you a wonderful day. 
I bought CiV 5 last week during a Steam sale, played a few games, and I can honestly say that this iteration of Civ is bland, lifeless and "dumbed down" relative to Civ 4.
IMHO, LH (and FE) blow Civ 5 away.
I agree with you 100%; Although Civ5 has an expansion coming out in about a month that swears to improve upon nearly all aspects I thought were lacking (even with the religions expansion which I found a bit lackluster).
It has a chance of trumping LH, at least in my book. I'd get into the many reasons why I say that, but then that's another long-winded, unrelated topic. But with the way things are going, Stardock probably has something far better than LH around the corner as well.
And the cycle continues...
