Definitely, MMA grappling and pure grappling are two separate entities, but it's nice to watch a fight and say "Man, if this guy takes his back it very well could be over", or to actually not want to fall asleep with watching mediocre dirty boxing in the clinch. I thought the clinch work was excellent, but like you said, it came to a point where it seemed like neither fighter in any danger of getting caught. <-- That's all in regards to the main event.
In terms of the other fights, I only saw the last four on the card. Beltran v. Maldonado was set up to be a brawl I suppose, but it sure didn't turn out that way. I prefer technical fights with healthy dosage of brawling, but Maldonado v. Beltran was certainly neither of those. Silva v. Hammil was cringeworthy, I am relieved it was not on PPV. E. Silva v. Kim was not as technical as I'd hoped it would be, but after the previous 2 fights, I didn't that brawl whatsoever. All in all, what I saw didn't look good.