I read somewhere (and now I have no idea where, but I do remember it) that when crushing grains for steeping you actually want a very light crush, basically just crack the hull open, as opposed to breaking the things apart. My first kit (from midwest) came with these uncrushed-looking grains and I used a mortar-and-pestle to crush them up a bit more. Seemed to work fine. Next kit was a Northern Brewer, grains also looked sort of uncrushed, but this time I left them alone (because the first kit ended up with little bits of grain pieces coming out of the bag). That beer tastes and looks great too.
For a recipe I'm about to make, I just ordered a pound of crushed CaraPils from NB along with a pound of uncrushed for a future batch. I plan to do a direct comparison of the two, to determine if "crushed" does indeed mean a light hull-cracking for these guys.
EDIT: oh, and I made a Brewer's Best kit that I got for Christmas...those grains were CRUSHED. Dust and sludge coming out of the muslin and floating on top. I was kind of concerned about that, but so far it seems fine, too.