It's dependent upon your opinion. Personally I enjoyed Warband. Vanilla was so long ago I played it before I could even tell if I liked the game or not. Then I played as the sultanate in warband, and finally said "ohhh yeah I'm gonna play this game." Then tried some mods, tried this, hated it, and tried other mods. I found a couple that were likable to me, and played them for a while, but then because i was aware pop had a large fanbase, I figured I must've been too judgmental about it, so I gave it another try and ended up loving it, after seeing all the other mods.
anyways, I believe we've already addressed this. I hardly look at warband as "mediocre". For what? Just because it doesn't have fancy voodoo 1024p HD 3D graphics, doesn't mean it's "mediocre". Gamers these days man...