This has indeed been something that often has been very confusing for new users. While the previous balancing worked (though it sometimes really did get hammered), the idea of a more tangible, easily understood system is a good step to empowering these users to make better choices — based on understanding their own abilities, instead of smashing a button and praying the numbers swing ever in their favour.

This is something I spend a lot of time explaining to users new and old, and to the skeptics out there. I appreciate the move towards something more predictable that will help people better actually understand the technology they enjoy. Cheers.