I like this change. It took an eternity for her to just become Dean's and Jess' GF, and I guess the writers wanted to make it so that she's now a take charge kind of woman.

Luke is a character. Ditto to the person who said he had a heart of gold. In addition to the ice skating rink, he's also done work on the house free of charge, cried at Rory's Chilton graduation, baked coffee cakes and blew up balloons at his diner on Rory's birthday...the list is endless.

I guess he's just a likeable guy because he's just average, and everyone's rooting for him.