State of the game

Hello,

I have been drawn to GGG titles first by trying POE2 as of 0.3 then discovering the masterclass that is POE1 and then had to comeback to whatever this is.

For someone that never played POE before (1 or 2) its my 3rd league both games combined, I'm shocked to find myself saying this but WHY the F does every single mechanic in POE2 feels like a downgrade from a POE1 mechanic?

I have some example of my experience as someone that's fairly new to this.

In poe1 my first playthrough I didn't have to interact with other players (aka the trade) to gear myself (until I hit maven, and I still don't know shit about crafting, and OK the game is emptier because of lack of leagues but still)
but in poe2 I found myself in shortage of pretty much everything (bases, orbs that matters not shitty augs) I'm not saying everything has to be handed to us but there has to be a middle ground. at least so the progression feels smooth

Let's talk core mechanics:
I liked the fact that I could faceroll pretty much every map boss in poe1 once I was geared. WHY the fuck is there an invuln at the start of every encounter, with birds that become immune tornado that tp and oneshot ? Where is the fun in that?

Now the other bosses. Either it's pain to get to them (like mapping straight forward for 100 maps to find both of the 3 fragments)
run 10/15 maps to have the splinter to run the breach boss once (and to get OS because 1 portal ?? what even is that shit, 6 portal was good why the f do we get only 1, if I wanted to play HC I'd play HC)

The maps: It was so fun to be able to farm the same map for 1 strategy because the map offered possibilities other couldn't in the 1 but now we have to stick with whatever is put up on us. feels like diablo4 shit. target farming is probably what everyone likes in this games everyone in it's own way, now we are streamlined into doing all the same "kind" of content.

Now the tablets... WHAT is this cheap ass scarab recolor that is just a straight up downgrade? in this instance, like the atlas passives, I think that you found the right equilibrium in POE1 (the more the merrier) cuz now it feels like there is 1 meta, maybe 2, and the rest isn't "fun"

now the fun part: BUGS..
Can we talk about the fact that there are bugs that are breaking literally parts of the game and makes them unusable, but we get patch that are completely incoherent with the state of the game ? special mention to our beloved Irradiated, still bugged..
Or Atziri's new mechanic, where after countless of maps, a patch supposed to help and still having the room reroll on me like 4 times in a row where I cannot have The boss room and the portal room connected at the same time.
and this is only a small piece of only what I have experienced, but there is countless more incoherence's.

For a normal beginner player, this game feels like a streamer propaganda for a mobile game version of a game people actually like.

I'm not here to shit on the game for the sake of shitting, but to say that after tasting the 1, poe2 feels like we went from D2 to D3 where EVERY mechanic went from good to bad. Sequels never win I guess

last poe 1 league had a big loot nerf, i had to sweat farm for almost a week to get a mageblood. Loot was terrible in poe 1 so does in poe 2 now.

It's shocking to see that sometimes i cannot even find items on trade, because there are none, people don't have the resources to craft them.
I understand that devs want to keep players for longer by not handing over everything... but where is the goddam loot??? We play because we want to pick up things from the ground and not the shitty orbs. No loot, no progression, no fun.
I'm a player who has infinite amount of time to play this game, but other people don't have that, what about the majority who don't have 12 hrs a day to play?

Just look at the statistics.
Last league ~350k people started and after 2 weeks 130k quit.
This league? ~290k after 5 days to ~160k.
This is terrible.

The game is nowhere near rewarding, you don't see big drops, you don't have dopamine, you quit. Plain and simple.

And there is only 2 level 100 players currently? jeez, what is happening?