I can definitely say that after I grab Red Crate I am so done with Conquest. It's such a grind that the last thing I want to do is slog through repetitive battles again and again for Datacrons.
I would certainly -- let me repeat that it is 100% certain -- spend more crystals on conquest if they made it possible to sim a DC node without progress towards feats.
As it is, I don't think I spent any crystals on Conquest the entire last 3 days of Conquest last time. Maybe even 4, though I couldn't be sure. And because of my work with 50ShardsOfKAM I'm always behind in Conquest by a couple days. I'm sure that for other players this would be more like 5 days of spending.