Well in q2wf the grapple was a lot slower than the wfa one (you couldn't slingshot for example) and the mod had a wider success. In this time the mod was not particularly known for a supposed fast gameplay.
Thinking of it maybe it's really the q3 grapple that fucked up the balance & doomed every mod that used it. It was so fast you had to make the defense lots stronger. The devteam spent the whole mod's lifetime trying to fix the poor balance created by the new grapple.
Newbs would come & see people going so fast with grapple they would be demoralized, then they would try to attack and would get slaughtered by a widely overpowered defense. Then they would try defense and see how easy it is to kill attackers. Not that good of a first impression imho.
Sorry to disappoint all the grapple monkeys but it's true, the q3 grapple was just too fast.