Most people hate this system. There is nothing good about it. There are of course some apologists like the poster above, but the general concensus ist that the system sucks.
An official statement was something along the lines of "it's been like this in 4.6 and yes, the update had its flaws, we still loved it, and manastone socketing was part of it".
Coping yourself out of trying to improve the game is beyond me. I mean, sure it's one of the most beloved versions there's ever been, but not taking the chance to make it even better is something I'll never understand.