OK - Thought I was imagining stuff for a while but:
In v10.2.2, the StreamToFeature tool still pumps out 'grid_code' field (or 'GRID_CODE' if using a shapefile. Thus. now with the advent of the 'gridcode' flavor in v10.2, the problem is actually worse now in that there are now three different flavors: 'gridcode', 'grid_code', and 'GRID_CODE' .... Right after I did a blanker find='grid_code' and replace='gridcode'.
*&(^(^^%!!!!! I can't win...
Note the StreamToFeature tool in v10.2 returns a schema of:
For shapefile format: 'ARCID', 'GRID_CODE', 'FROM_NODE', 'TO_NODE'
For FGDB format: 'arcid', 'grid_code', 'from_node', 'to_node'