Itemization during campaign

I know they somewhat buffed the drops but I'm still struggling with getting/crafting items in the campaign. I do see more items dropping now. I am seeing *slightly* more currency. I do sometimes see items on vendors. My problem is that the crafting is completely RNG which is fine (I guess) if there was enough currency to try and craft on all the white/blue/rare items that I could potentially craft on. The reality is that I barely have any currency so it makes no sense to risk it crafting on some so-so item in the hopes that I will land a few good mods and in most cases I just don't have the currency to risk it even if I wanted to.

The main problem I have is my weapon. The power increase with a weapon upgrade is significant but starts falling off fast as I level/progress. However, I rarely see weapons worthy of using or trying to craft on and/or don't have currency to spare.

To be fair I'm still not that high level (only mid 30's) because I don't have a lot of time to play and I have played 2 different characters into the 30's but I thought the vision of the game was to have more abundant currency so people could craft more freely and not horde currency? I feel like in PoE2 with gem power being capped to your current area I *need* to craft or trade even more than in PoE1 but don't have the currency for either. I'm sure this will improve with levels but again.. wasn't the idea to have people crafting more as they level?

To call this 'crafting' is a tad over-egging IMO, it's nothing like crafting in other APRGs especially PoW1 it's 100% RNG-based 'augmentation' which is a fatuous mechanism for a game designed such that you HAVE to have certain affixes on gear, e.g. + Life, simply to survive.

I guess WIlson decided to make PoE2 entirely RNG based as part of his blueprint for the Ruthless game he failed to make PoE1 into due to so few PoE1 players actually thinking Ruthless is an enjoyable game mode.

In PoE2 it's Ruthless or nothing.

It'll get better when there's a "league" that drops stuff but yeah it's really bad. 99% of upgrades are from vendor and gambler. Incredibly rare to drop any items at all for your character when leveling. When yolo regaling a 1 good mod magic item is your best and only option much of the time something is wrong.

I did the "yolo regal yolo exalt til full" SSF crafting on weapons and it just made me feel like I was being wasteful. Unless you're starting with a high flat phys roll prefix there's no point in even trying.

For me, regaling/exalting jewels was the only real dopamine hit I got.