Something to learn from Diablo 4

I think its always good to widen the view. What D4 does indeed better is focus on the ACTION. After all both games are an ActioN RPG, so killing the monsters should be actually fun.

Studying guides, using tens of different tools and websites, figuring out how to optimze a temple layout? is this considered action?

Trading and crafting should be there, but should they be NOT the only source to get the BIS gear?! How about dropping and looting actially good stuff, besidess currency items.

What sucks in D4 is that the stupiest f. gets the best items (shako 4 GA) after 10 min of play, though. Its always like that...

POE2 wanted to be more approachable for newer players. But in the end it will be as difficult in POE1 with all the mechanics. Look at the temple, imagine 5-6 mechanics like that, and its again on the same level as POE1

everything is handed to you in d4 - you have full legendaries by like level 15-20. there's no brain power required, you're just strong enough. if you're strong enough, drops become meaningless, there's nothing to strive for. sure the legendary affix is wrong, but you'll have the correct ones around level 60 then get free stats via paragon all the way until you "finish all content" which is different for each player.

that being said, poe2 shoves punishment down your throat with boon/bane system present in nearly every aspect of the game. is this great? no, but it's better than infinite power with no downsides like d4. it also makes hitting a nice drop feel like a massive power/currency increase that lets you scale your character in some form.

i do wish for some clunkiness to be fixed with combat as their is a fluidity issue (whether that be with melee based skills, mob/boss hitboxes, or excessive cooldowns on spell skills that just slow down the game when the player could go faster than the cooldowns. feels bad that left click bow is the only real way in poe2 to go fast.

Crafting does not exist in Poe2. It's an awful casino simulator and we all know it. Last Epoch is probably better example what crafting should be. It really wants you to engage with it.