The reason crucible running is so important right now is because horadric jewels are probably the most wanted item right now besides frostmourne. Every build needs a lot of them. With an enchant sorc now giving you a free 100-150% elemental damage, most elemental builds are better off getting pierce from their jewels than damage (pierce gives higher marginal damage than %damage in most instances). For physical builds, pierce is the best way to increase damage if you achieve max cb/ds. So as long as enchant gives %elemental damage, pierce is so important for physical builds, and the crucible is the only source of horadric jewels, crucible running will be essential for anyone who wants to fully max out their characters. So people who want to optimize their characters need to either play a class that can solo through Crucible level 15 or make friends... Trading for horadric jewels is difficult because most people who trade them are looking to trade for a different type of horadric jewel.

So mostly solo players like me have some adjustments to make no matter what happens with this. If the crucible requires a team again, I need to make friends. If it stays the same, I have to learn to love a new spec. I have learned to love wind dudu and it is working out nicely even without perfect gear. It's not the end of the world if my favorite spec can't kill everything. It is just a game after all.