I think the majority here (sticking my neck out a little) would be happy enough with the AI if it just avoided the worst excesses of "irrational" behaviour rather than cutting the randomness out all together and to be honest 1.2 seems to have mostly acheived this (other than the apparantly random blockades).

To be honest I have not played a non-Catholic faction since 1.2 came out so I am probabaly getting a biased view of games workings. Having said that it does seem to work nicely enough and in my present English game which has reached turn 160 only one fact has been destroyed (the Danes at the hands of the Scots and the Mongols oddly enough). I have experinced wars, prolonged peace, been betrayed (once) and had two alliances last most of the game (the one with scotland has lasted 158 turns). The Turks, Egyptians and Moors are still in the game, maybe because the Mongols turned up on the Northern Stepps.

I will endevour to play as a Musilm and Orthodox faction to get the full range of experience...