Are Rares realy useless?

[Dozer]

when selecting Affixes, always spawn the highest possible for the selected group (for example hell diablo won't drop an Amulet with the "Might" affix but with "Atlas" instead

Too much. Making 90% of Hell rare weapons have cruel or grandmaster's on them, or BOTH, would take the problem from one end of the spectrum to the other. Think of this rare:
(Any Weapon)
Cruel
Grandmaster's
Fool's
Of Quickness
Of The Lamprey
Of The Vampire (or an ethereal with self repair here)

:o :o :o 500% ed, ~1200 AR boost, 40% IAS, High Dual leech - How does this "balance" rares? Granted, this is an extreme case, but in your third suggestion you say that the combat mods should spawn MORE often on weapons, always picking the highest affix??? :blink: That's just wrong.