In my experience, 1450 is moderately to very temperature-sensitive. I adore it in dark ales fermented 62-66F, but find it to be a poor performer much cooler and I have found it to throw out a lot of esters in the 72-74F range. One pack to 2.5 gallons is the correct pitch rate (assuming moderate gravity and a reasonably fresh pack), not some sort of overpitch. The roasty grains masking flaws is highly likely, as some people are more sensitive to yeast-driven flavors than others and some people like esters that others don't. For example, lots of people love WLP007 and I absolutely hate it. Warm, cool, English bitters, porters, and West Coast IPA -- I have hated that yeast in all of them because I find the ester profile weird (and yes, I do like Stone beers, but not that much and I frequently disliked the "one off" beers they had at their facility in Napa when I lived there last year). Likewise, I really like S-04 fermented super cool (58-62F) and I know a lot of people who despise it in any capacity.