If I wanted 'Slow Grind with Low Droprate and Expensive Crafting' I'd play WoW Classic

Which I do actually play. And enjoy thoroughly. But WoW Classic is a significantly better product in every way other than graphics.

I'm an experienced D2, D3, and PoE player, who is having no difficulty clearing PoE2. What I am having, is a lack of enjoyment.
- The pacing is artificially slowed down by a lack of movement abilities and a rarity of run speed as a modifier on boots
- The zones quickly become overly large without being spacious
- The zones quickly become mazes without any logical structure, just narrow pathways and repeating themes (see below list of complaints for a more detailed explanation)
- Drop rates on items is far too low
- Drop rates on currency is still far too low
- No Orb of Alteration
- Dying clears drops
- Dying respawns monsters
- Dying resets the boss

- The skill gem system is irritating
• In PoE we could just buy skill gems at level 1 off of the vendor, or trade for the level we wanted off of other players, and they would level up with us
• In PoE2 we have to rely on RNG to get new skill gems and to level them

- The support gem system is irritating
• In PoE we had to deal with socket numbers, colors, and links, which could have used lower currency costs to adjust, but which allowed us to swap gems as we pleased once we had the right socket numbers, colors, and links
• In PoE2 we have to find consumables to increase the number of support sockets in our skill gems, which means that if we decide to swap skills, we have to redo that whole process of upgrading gems before we can even use them
• In PoE we could use the same support gems on multiple skills, or even connect multiple skills to the same support gem in the same item
• In PoE2 we can only use each support gem on a single skill, which greatly reduces the number of build options available to us

- The Trial of Sekhemas is horrible for melee until they greatly outgear it
• The Honour system punishes melee and builds which rely on tankiness

- The Trial of Sekhemas is horrible in general
• It feels more like a poorly-designed minigame
• It doesn't have any weight to it, it's just annoying

- The zones don't feel like you're traversing a world; more like you're just going through disconnected stages that have little to nothing to do with each other
• In PoE1, every time you would progress through a zone, the transition made sense visually and thematically
• In PoE2, every time you progress through a zone, the transition is jarring and doesn't flow together visually or thematically

Going back to the 'mazes without any logical structure' comment from above:
When you're exploring a world, the things that past civilizations have built were built for a practical purpose; they weren't built for the sake of being a generic 'stage' for some random future adventurer to battle their way through.

If you're going into a temple, you'll expect to see a logically designed temple. There should be at least one room designed for prayer or meditation, at least one room designed for communal eating, at least one room designed for sleeping, and so on and so forth. Gardens, training areas, teaching areas, libraries, and other such rooms. Statues, religious motifs, reliquaries, and other elements important to the relevant faith should also be present.

And yet, in PoE2, when you go into a new zone, regardless of its theme it's laid out like its builders designed it to be a 'stage' for random future adventurers to battle their way through, with little to no indication that it was ever intended for use by the people who built it. There's no sense of being in a world. It just feels like being in a cheap game--aside from the fact that the graphics are really good, of course.

Meanwhile, in Classic World of Warcraft:
- The pace is really slow
• You level slowly
• You gear slowly
• The zones are massive
• A fight with a single level 3 Kobold when you're just starting out can take 10 seconds by itself

And yet. It feels immersive, leveling up feels significant, and your loot feels more meaningful. You also gear faster in Classic WoW than in PoE2, because even if you don't have the best of luck with your drops right away, at least the quest rewards provide you with potential upgrades, and the dungeons definitely do.

As I've been leveling in PoE2, due to the extreme lack of useful item drops, I've had to stop and trade currency for items through the website's 'Trade' section before being able to continue clearing at anything even remotely resembling an acceptable rate. Some players have found upgrades through the vendors, and some players have lucked into upgrades through using their currency, but I've found so little currency that I haven't been able to craft any items into anything useful. I've found just enough Exalted Orbs to trade for weapons upgrades at the cost of 1 Exalted Orb per upgrade, and I've only upgraded every 10-15 levels or so.

The drop rate of items is bad enough that I've found myself using gear I found in Act 1, 30+ levels later. And it's not even good gear; I just haven't found anything better! And the drop rate of currency, and the RNG associated with it, is so bad that I haven't been able to make upgrades, either. And I'm rocking 'Increased Rarity' on both rings, my helmet, my boots, and my gloves, and I'm still not finding anything.

As for the mechanics; the only boss fight mechanics I've found to actually be challenging are the Trial of Sekhemas boss mechanics, and that only because of the Honour system as a melee character. And Geonor has been the only boss fight I actually enjoyed; the rest have been boring, with boring mechanics and boring bosses and far too much dodge rolling required.

In short: I'm finding far too many deeply flawed core design philosophies in this game to consider it an upgrade over PoE at this point in time, and shall be recommending to friends that they avoid purchasing access until these design flaws have been addressed and reworked. Some of these problems will need a serious overhaul, and others--such as drop rates and movement speed--will just require adjusting numbers; more than they did in last night's patch.

oh boy, just go back and play WoW Classic.

You must not be a fan of Elden Ring either. You want the gratification with out any trial and error. WoW Classic was a grind. Other than the Battlegrounds being level capped, and you could make a twink hero. That was about it.
You have lost your way. This is feedback about a game that is made no one wants listen to a comparison of other games that exist. Play D2, D3, D4. D2 was super slow, super super slow until you could grind run over and over and over. D3 was so boring skills were prechosen and D4 well, that was the Gen Z era of giving instant gratification and making everything feel the same. @Stefanaki is correct. Play something else that takes zero brain cells to play.