I'm beginning to think that we have different definitions of "using all the rules." If you are using some shorthand method of creating the NPCs, that doesn't meet my own definition for that (which is NOT the same as saying "you're doing it wrong!"). I'll maintain that HQ2 does knock off a significant amount of time from game prep-it may be 10% rather than %50-but that's still significant in my book.
Mark Mohrfield