i myself like the balance mod, but most people don't like the changes. i guess exploding dretches and a bouncing cannon are not most people's style.

Server ops sure seem to like it though, there are a lot of Balance servers now though its a rare day when I catch a decent game going.
The "bouncing cannon" was especially obnoxious due to a insta-kill bug with projectiles getting stuck in people (bad). Hopefully fixed with rev 15.
I usually play on YakNet Balance, it was one of the first Balance servers and I get a good ping there.