lilliput, I agree with your observation but this is a house. Personally, I have to beat my 70's vintage stove exhaust and wait about 5 minutes for it to come up to speed - when it does run it sounds like there's a lawn mower in the kitchen, and it vents to the attic! (codes weren't so important back then). My last house I bought the cheesy contractor put the stove vent unit in (to look good) but there was no exhaust duct! There was also a phone jack on the wall with no wiring to it... okay, I got taken. If there's no deep fat fryer and it's a typical stove, and it's mechanically exhausted as you say and it's not pitched to trap grease at a low point, and will save you a ton of headache, go for it.
NOTE: be prepared for a nice cold draft blowing back onto the stove during winter if there's not a good backdraft damper. Hopefully it won't be strong enough to blow out pilots and cause an explosive hazard.
In the end, I personally would bash up a little sheetrock, duct it right and preserve the warranty. But that's just me. If it's your own residential, I think we should be allowed some leniency and to assume some risk - it's our own necks at stake. If you're performing a service for a customer, you should (in fact, you're obliged to) do it the right way without question.