Yep, that is a decent way to describe it. The thing I like most about C&C, other than the smoothness of play, is it is very friendly to adapting rules, spells, magic items, ect... from various editions of D&D. Like I have rules from 3E and 4E adapted to my C&C.
I looked a the Condensed PHB. Awesome! Too bad WotC doesn't have design talent like that.