Well, the Speedsafe assist is still a crappy mechanism, but I understand the reason they went with that is due to costs.
When the torsion bar breaks, the whole thing is not functional anymore. I know Kershaw will likely send you a replacement, but I would rather it not break in the first place.
The best kind of assist IMO is the OutBurst found on the CRKT Hissatsu 2 (which btw should be legal as I've seen shops sell it).
You can remove the spring and the knife functions like normal, and it is a true "assist" in the sense that the spring is only there to help facilitate better opening, but does not mess anything up when it is removed.
Too bad they won't make that knife with better steel. I would like to see CRKT at least move on to VG-10 instead of AUS-8 on their mid-level knives.
Technically the chinese 8cr13mov steel is a step below AUS-8, but heck, it performs close enough to the real deal, so I'm not about to complain. What I will complain about is how two certain chinese knife brands can sell their products with 8cr13mov steel for less than 1/5 the cost of an American equivalent using the exact same 8cr13mov steel.
And if you wanted VG-10, why not go straight for Al-Mar or SOG?