SQUISH. Plain and simple. I have always been a huge opponent to the exponential model that Blizz developed and decided they didn't know how to fix. At the end of the day, the game should be based on skill and not gear. If gear is what makes you destroy someone in pvp or something in pve then the game has failed in my opinion. More or less normalizing gear, rewarding players with slight increases for their 'performance', and and focusing on content... what a crazy idea.
As stated by Blizz, this will reduce the extensive amount of large numbers that the game has to compute during play, and therefore will reduce overall requirements needed to play the game on max settings. System/video lag will be reduced as a result, which of course they will fill up with more graphics but still, it will help overall. Yes, the transition may feel clunky or like a huge slap to the junk with dead fish, buttttttt it will be worth it.
Rip that bandaid off as fast as possible, you have my vote!