To each his own, I guess, but I don't consider knowing what the exact distance is between you and the mob is a good indicator of skill. It's what you do with that knowledge in the formulation of battle tactics that demonstrates how well you use that information.

It's analogous to the newly introduced enmity meter, in a sense. It didn't turn the game into "easy mode" as all the complainers were yelling about pre-1.18.