AFB was never needed, but at lower levels where exp was slow, it could certainly speed things up, and now it'll get you to 30+ even faster so that you can key *** your way to 90 in abyssea.
Topdogg, you're kind of right, because of the higher exp per kill, the syncer will level faster, but you get more exp for lower level mobs than you did before too, so overall, with AFB I'm pretty sure you'd come out well ahead than you would have before the update.
I get a little reminiscent when I see a thread about AFB, AFB rage thread was the very first thread I read on these forums, 'cause I had nfi what it was.