When I first started, I learned all that without range rings that change size to tell you how much farther you can fly. I read the E6B data, looked at the map, and guessed. Sometimes I guessed wrong, and learned from it. It's not that tough, and I'd rather HTC put their efforts into something that everyone could benefit from.
As did I. But not everyone learns as fast as you and I. Obviously, a single addition like this won't lower the learning curve THAT much, but more smaller additions like it might. So why not start with this?
If you're completely new to a game, would you rather spend 1 hour reading up on how to work this and work that, or would you rather just jump straight in and play? A less complicated game might require a few minutes of reading (which is no biggie), but AH is anything but a simple game, reading the whole "beginners guide" takes an hour at least. Some people probably just walked away when they realized the learning curve in AH, so why wouldn't you want to reduce it in order to gain more customers?
It's not dumbing the game down, you still have to learn ACM, SA and all that, it's just making the game easier to enjoy.