This isn't new functionality, it's just that SMB2 is now the default.
What this thing is saying SMB2 support has been added ( since Mountain Lion does not support SMB2 ) and seems to have been simultaneously made the default for connecting to servers that support it ( hopefully only if you don't explicitly specify what to use and presumably the SMB server on OS X Mavericks does )
You have to assume that the majority of Apple's users are home/edu/SMB users, who don't have centralised infrastructure.
They just want to share files between each other, or from a small NAS. Those who have Macs in an enterprise environment likely have a working solution via other methods.