I think its nice to have, and yes it is hard to get used to normal speed again after you run around everywhere faster than slow ground mounts.
With the current changes to scaling in the beta, the trade off is more worth it. It will only take 8 sockets to get to 48% movement speed. The initial speed gem itself, then either 7 blues or 6 blues plus the healing gem if you are a vet. So its that, or 24 main stat if gems stay at +3.
Personally I find the trade off worth it to get through places faster and the heal every 10 seconds letting me concentrate on that less.