Honestly: grass, particles, effects, etc… should only affect the QUALITY, and NOT the QUANTITY.
Low and high settings should only determine how pretty these things look… not whether they disappear or cover your whole screen.
You shouldn’t be forced to dial these settings down just not to be in a disadvantage compared to those who do. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice visual fidelity and quality for gameplay purposes.
I bet my ass suddenly the amount of people with “bad PCs” would decrease dramatically and more people would start using higher settings.