I have only been solving a short while but that's certainly one of the easier ones. I didn't think 32D was too bad (especially when the other clues gave me some confirmatory letters).
As regards the frequency of the numericals; I have now done 8 (3 in the paper and 5 from the chambers book of listeners) and even though I am definitely better at them than I am at the "wordies", I find the "wordies" much more satisfying. I think more numericals would be nice but I wouldn't want that to be at the expense of the "wordies" - I shan't use that description for them anymore.
For me, I think it might be to do with the fact that in a word-based listener, every time I have to look up the dictionary, I'm more than likely going to learn a new and interesting word (or at least a new sense for an already known word). If I then couple that with the thematic element, it means week in week out I end up learning a whole host of weird and wonderful things.
Compare that to the numericals where it may only take 1 or 2 tricks/techniques to be repeatedly applied before the puzzle is solved and even then it might just end up being a grid of numbers with no further denouement (although this doesn't apply in every case). Having said that, the grid construction for these puzzles is mightily impressive (as can be said for the majority of the word based puzzles as well).