To help all the new and returning players after the stream happens on the 5th of course. PoTD doesn't seem so random when you think of it like that.

Also up to date players that don't do extreme or savage just got their current tier tome weapon a bit ago which is still 7 weeks normal timegated and 1000 tomes to buy. Doubt they want to make these too quick to get because of that.

Personally I think the previous step was already way delayed significantly so it ended up not as bad. It was like 8ish months into the tier at that point and at the tail end of a catch up patch. Not much point in making a brutal grind for that as it had a life span of another 2 months remaining before being potentially trashed by a crafted weapon.