This would help new players catch up much more easily. Once you hit 60 now, there is a steep step to leap over to get into content beyond Alwaysreap and this would be of great help for old gear which is still useful for getting them past that step.
I would not think it's acceptable at the start of 4.0 when the tomes are all new, but for 4.1/4.2 it should be fine again for this kind of idea.