I'm with you HRM. I keep mine on neutral as well. Unfortunately for me though, I bought my car with 80k miles on it and already had the symptoms when I bought it.

 

I used to keep my foot on the clutch at lights, but after the first new clutch, some 60k ago, I changed my ways. I only keep the pedal depressed for no more than 15 seconds.

Related note: The throwout bearing on hydraulically actuated clutches is constantly spinning, but is only under load when the pedal is depressed and the clutch is disengaged.

The guide sleeve for the MCS transmission was redesigned at some point to help with the problem of crunchy pedal. Forgot to mention that that redesigned guide sleeve was also part of my clutch job.