So after reading through this entire thread, I'm somewhat conflicted.
I cannot remember what mod I used first but this mod is definitely among the ones I did; I may have just used a combination of mods with this one included. However I do remember what my first "major" build involving BTW was. It was an elevator going from bedrock to my sky fortress. The elevator shaft was dug by a buildcraft quarry and it was controlled using redpower wiring. It was a perfect synergy between the three. I did end up starting new worlds later after this due to general minecraft updates and I did include BTW in many of them. However after a while I stopped using BTW (though I did keep it installed and ready) for reasons I will hit on below.
Going back to where the discussion hit on the topic that some mods have become "cluttered" I would like to point out that whether something is or isn't cluttered is an opinion and frankly the main reason that I stopped using this was because I thought it was becoming cluttered with many trivial things. This is not to say that you shouldn't add things to your mod based on my or anyone else's opinion, you can direct your mod in any direction you choose, this is however what drove me away from your mod. This also isnt meant to say that other mods are not becoming cluttered (it is for this reason I completely hate the new Buildcraft with engines, oil, and fuel), yours was just the first that I noticed was.
I would also like to touch on the issues raised with Eloraam. While I cannot comment on whether or not Forge has been mostly/completely customized for redpower, I have looked into creating a forge compatible mod and I have not noticed forge modifying more base files than necessary. Maybe I misunderstood the complaint there.
Lastly I wanted to touch on the issue of the copied items in redpower. While I can see partially why it might be upsetting to have such similar objects, if no one is allowed to make items that are similar to items from other mods, how can improvements on old systems be introduced? To go off of your tower analogy from several pages back, since you have built a tower, why cant someone build a better tower? Is the fact that your tower exists supposed to mean that no one else can build any sort of tower that resembles yours in any way, coincidence or otherwise? Getting back to the issue, if another modder makes an improvement on a core idea you originally developed and there is no other way to accomplish the same task, then why should you hold the key as to what can and what cannot be made? It was this sort of reasoning as to why Microsoft got to make windows even though it was very similar to the apple OS, there just wasn't any other way to make the same product. I know you have compared your mining charge to buildcraft's quarries as an analogy of how new ideas can be used for the same task but frankly the two don't accomplish the same task. The mining charge is an explosive used to help players mine resources, but the resources must be collected by the player; It is versatile but requires player interaction if you want to keep the resources. The quarry is designed to strip the land of all of its resources in a way that requires no player interaction whatsoever. It is true that both help mine, but mining is such a broad category that they are not the same.
Anyway I don't mean for this to sound as critical as it came out. It's just that there needs to be two sides to every discussion. On the general topic of dropping forge it is completely and utterly up to you. You could decide to add giant purple flying elephants if you wanted, I just wanted to add my input to the discussion here. I am sad to see the compatibility go and I may download BTW in the future, it still has some aspects that keep me coming back.
Edit: apparently the post above me was posted while I was typing all this out and I think it summarizes quite nicely
The Point: Your mod. Your rules. We'll live.
