Many stories and legends abound about 2001 (the LSD story be one of them)...as for the way the movie changed the way some things were made before and how it influenced the ones that were made after that is well documented (Lucas is a fan and it lead his philosophy about the look of StarWars).
As a visualist first, Kubrick comes from a reporter/photographer background and he tried to convey the story with the images first, then the scenario second. One might not like that type of cinema, but there's a lot of Directors, nowadays, that use that kind of approach (Chris Nolan for one or James Cameron) to tell the story.
I only wish that they'll have a Canadian showing of that unrestored 70 mm print:confused