I was a bit shocked at the news myself when I first read it, but now I think it's good. They'll supposedly increase the drops from normal monsters and the chances of good stuff from gambling. What this means is that, in order to get good items, one should do full-clears of areas instead of killing the same boss over and over again. I'd really prefer having some variety instead of just killing Mephy over and over and over again...

As for keeping a 1.09 version around for that, it seems quite illogical. You have plenty of items already. I don't think you need any of the items you're missing, especially if you're playing only sorceresses. Some of them would be very useful, true, but most of the items are just good for your collection. The leaked lists include 105 new uniques. So, if you play only 1.09, you'll essentially be losing a chance to get 27% of the unique items...

And if you want 1.09 just for the higher chance of getting the 1.09 uniques, why not take it a step further and play 1.08, where many of the items were more powerful than their 1.09 versions, or classic 1.06, where it's possible to gamble SoJs and find dual-leech rings?

Then there's the fact that it might not even be worth transferring many of the MF'd 1.09 items to 1.10, as the 1.10 items are more powerful...

*shrugs*.