I have a lap top about 2 years old and it could run any battle flawlessly. Removing my options for those with weaker computers is a joke. 4 GB ram, 64 bit, duel 2 GHz processor, 512 MB nvidia . Handled 450+ corpses/rag dolls fine.
... I was never one to support numbing down stuff because the average person couldn't keep up. You can't do it, don't drag others down with you. If anyone continues to use settings that crash their game... Then the numbskull can suffer with the crashes.
I love games that have the options that no computer in existence can handle on max... Total annihilation, for example. When it was new, no computer could handle the max settings. Hell, my computer starts to have trouble with 6000 units fighting while moving, in ground and air based combat simultaneously. I am sure some computers could max it out now, but they are still far from the average gamer.
I think it is a seriously flawed business decision to limit the ability of your product when some of the just above average systems can already max it out. It leaves the game with little improvement for players to enjoy when they upgrade their systems in the years to come.