Completely agree, though LESS is nice, I think it would be best for people to be kept within rails "standards" (for want of a better term) which at the moment means SASS. There's also the whole "having to maintain a JS stack" that less necessitates as well, which would be better to leave well alone for beginners I think.
I went the less port because it was being upgraded quicker with the 2.0 release. I've used both and they are both great gems. Both function pretty similar so don't be afraid of the LESS version, its still supported in the assets pipeline!