importance of a wort chiller

I made a starter tonight so I can brew a hefeweizen on Sunday. Normally, I just let the pot of starter cool until it's cool (~2 hours). Tonight, I ran it under cold water and cooled it off in 15 minutes.

A couple of big differences. The clarity was far improved, there was a lot more hot break material, and the taste was cleaner.

Which got me thinking about wort chillers. Does the ability of to chill wort quickly make this huge of a difference? I've always thought of it as a luxury item that would substantially shorten my brew days, but wouldn't make my beer better... but tonight's experiment seems to be indicating otherwise!

Yes, it causes what is known as the cold break, and helps clear your beer. Chiil beer fast = good, chill beer slow = chance of infection, haziness and stability problems (bad).