Well... We went from trying to max out the damage and stat and getting +10% damage and socket on a weapon, to trying to max out the damage and stat and getting +10% damage and +7% IAS on a weapon.
This new item, assuming it works on pre 2.1 items (it should?), obviously allows people to use those weapons they've already found with the aforementioned stats that they haven't rolled a socket on, but other than that, we're still minmaxing weapons, just differently now.
Basically this new item is worth +7% IAS (or whatever the max was, if I remember wrong.) Sure, it may open a little bit of variety in weapons but I don't know really. You'll still basically have to hit 3/4 primaries (damage, stat, +% damage) to get a good weapon.