Why is + to gem level all over gear?

I haven't really played much PoE 1 the last year, but from what I remember it was a very rare a sought after affix, usually on amulet, and like just +1.

Now with more later game gear im sitting at +8 total, and the cap being +10. thats an absolutely ludicrous amount of power behind gear.

minions in particular are literal dogshit until you get gem levels on them, then they become virtually unkillable and every 2 gem levels is like another support gem slot worth of damage. That is just awful for balance for early levels, and new players in general. That is why you have such different feedback on them, people that aren't gearing correctly have an awful time, those that do find a much better expierence.

Same for spells, and again the game now has to be balanced around that fact that late game people are going to have +7-10 extra gem levels on top of everything, and anyone that doesn't have this gear is doing less than half the damage of those that do.

Any time i find an item that can roll + to gem level, if it doesn't have the cap or -1 to cap and other good stats, its an instant brick trash item. All these unqiues items that have to compete with rare items that have this also stand literally zero chance. a magic +7 to spells stafff is already better than most of the unique ones i've found, let alone if it even has half decent mods in the other 5 slots.