Player retention reflects the state of the game.

people who say that clearspeed meta and loot means low retention rate, must be banned from giving their feedback because they are not right. they are a bunch of FOMOed diablo enthusiasts. go back to diablo.
loot at affliction stats, the most zoom zoom and loot-filled meta ever

couple of reasons, i think: one is that ggg promised that poe2 1.0 was "pretty close" even though it's easily another year from now away. so people thought they'd be able to play something new and shiny right from the start and instead they got something with a solid early campaign and everything else was just ... pretty underdeveloped. so a lot of people left because the early access model only suits a small slice of the gaming market. people check out the new league, realize it's still not there and leave.

also, the vision for poe2 is all over the place. there is no methodical combat. it's just gradually becoming poe1 with better graphics. i also don't think they can manage the dev cycle of alternating leagues for two games. 0.4 will show if it was worth it to release a lackluster 3.27 league.

but what do i know... i'll just wait for 1.0 to consider whether it's worth playing.