POE punishes normal players more and more

So the fact that GGG offers challenges for good/dedicated players, they are punishing "normal" players?

If "normal" players were able to do all of these challenges, what types of carrots do you propose good/dedicated players get?

Even being casual myself I just enjoy the game like it is. I don't bother with challenges and races. It is not a mmorpg so rewards like appearance have no signification for me.
If you want rewards, you have to work for it. If you don't have the time, just enjoy with what you can do, it is free.

The challenges are good this time. Play the game and they complete themselves as they should.

To me it looks like you're just a bit angry that you had issues in your first mastermind fight. I completed it the first time around but only by doing some research, i.e. exposing myself to spoilers with some youtube guides. Not the way I would prefer it but it is SUPPOSED to be the grand finale of the league content and if it wouldn't be a challenge it wouldn't be any fun at all. So I reckoned I better jump in prepared as I realized this is not a game that holds your hand (thank god).

I feel that the challenge bit is mostly in figuring out the mechanics of the fight (with which I struggled, even after seeing the guides!) but I do feel that fights like that, (as with endgame Delve, bosses, maps, etc) should be hard and not something you can reasonably expect to breeze through for the first time, at low level and with a half finished build.

I have played a lot of hours this league but consider myself more of a casual than you in regards to challenges. Didn't even knew there were rewards for them lol. Just having fun in the game, learning stuff, gearing up and getting gud one step at a time.

Also there's plenty of stuff you can do casually. If you stumble into a wall on one aspect, like the atlas, try another for a while. The uber lab yielded me a ton of high tier maps, for instance. Delve just dropped an Offering for me so I can do another lab. Also low tier maps give you sulfite for more delving and yield safehouse unlocks which, if staffed correctly, can be very rewarding and support all other activities with scarabs.

Plenty of casual content in my eyes.

The one thing I will agree with is the frequency of boss fights. The fights are so heavily gated that its hard for a normal player to ever see them.

Id rather see more accessible fights with increased difficulty and reduced drop rates.

The challenging part of the game is not for normal/casual players. It's there for the top elite players to keep them busy; and it fails 'cause apparently it's too easy for them.

This game has plenty of casual content, problem is casuals aim too high when they know they can't do it. I fell into this trap a few times, and I always had to readjust myself back on track: there will be stuff I'll never do in this game, due to my casual style of play and lack of time; and there's nothing wrong with that.

The visibility issues/level of damage are probably fair, the boss difficulty...well, I have mixed feelings about it. While the mastermind is unintuitive at first (specially the totems, it needs better signaling because the changes happen outside the screen and you have to move around to find it), playing safe to learn them is totally possible and probably the optimal way to play PoE.

Syndicate can/is a pain in the butt.
That being said, this is the most successful league I have ever played in.

OP - define "normal player".

The difference between someone that just started playing PoE and someone that's played for several years, plays many hours and has researched lots of stuff, uses all the resources (poewiki,PoB,poeaffix,PoElab,PoeDB,loot filters,trademacros etc) to his advantage and has extensive knowledge of the mechanics + knows how to build and make currency and be efficient... is literally gigantic.

PoE isn't an "easymode" game basically. Which is good, although some layered rng stuff is ridiculous.

What POE does wrong is focusing on trade if it comes to drop rates or six link chances. I spent like 10k fusings since I started playing across all leagues, not a single six link.

It´s just hilarious how bad this is.

Same could be sad about the league specific drops, I played Delve for more than 2 months, not a single key drop. During Beastiary, I encountered 4 bosses... during Delve 3...
I don´t need mirrors, I just want the leagues to function without insane luck or trading. The current league is similar to that. The sulphite drop rates and costs are only in favor of speed runners who rush through maps in 30 seconds.

Us "normal people", that need a few minutes are left in the cold. Same with Einhar, this guy is too rare and Zana not resetting her map pool is bad as well, leave alone the spawn rates of Delve bosses and other masters.

Where I disagree though is the difficulty. I am a casual and don´t have too many issues. I did uber lab, I do the Syndicate and it´s fine. My biggest issue is always getting there, as things are so super rare. It always takes me ages to find all 6 trials or enough research encounters in Betrayel. I have not once been raiding that safehouse, as the spawn rates of research labs are insanely low.