RSS Error: after upgrading to 3.2

I received the following error in my dashboard, my plugins search would fail and the inline feed plugin I was using in my posts was failing after upgrading to 3.2:

RSS Error: WP HTTP Error: name lookup timed out

I followed the advice from this topic:
rss-error-wp-http-error-name-lookup-timed-out?replies=2 and it resolved the issue, but I’m wondering what )if any) are the ramifications of diabling the cURL transport? And why did the upgrade cause the issue in the first place? I note that it has happened to other people with previous versions as well.