I like a lot of quilting, but since I'm both the piecer and the quilter of all my quilts, it's certainly not about one-upsmanship. I don't find that my heavily quilted quilts are stiff at all, at least not after the first washing. A lot depends on the fabric choices and on the overall style of the quilt. I've never been fond of all-over automated quilting when it doesn't relate to anything else going on it in the quilt. Nor do I like a grid that's just there, regardless of the piecing or fabric pattern -- if I wanted to look at randomly placed grids, I'd display a mattress cover.
SharonAnne --- everyone will have their own take on it, but in your piece above, I do think that the pale green squares would look great with a free motion tropical leaf design. I'd do maybe some matched thread loose stippling on the purple flowers and animal print, or wavy lines, and then outline the two leopard figures, again in matching thread, but otherwise just SID or simple grid to keep the focus on the dramatic images.
RST