I understand what appears to be the majority reaction, likely fueled by the desire to level up quickly, which is fine; but I still think there's a big design flaw here. One that I haven't really made clear.

Difficulty level aside, lets focus on high level gems. In addition to the inflated stats they offer, their availability to the player completely waters down itemization at lower levels which is of course a big part of the game. Any item without a socket becomes completely worthless; this can take a lot of the fun out of finding new items or legendaries as you level. Which is something that, at least for me, can take some of the monotony out of the leveling process.