Changes I would like in POE2

Hello,
2 words about me.
*Professionally I am a QA automation Engineer. worked in testing for 12+ years. 1 Year of it was Game testing and worked on 2RPG's. not AAA but not indies either.
*Played Poe1 since open beta, never beat Maven but I got all other Pinacles :) so I am kind of a casual player.
*In poe2 I have 4 chars that are 80+ with 2 of them I do 15+maps. Only found 1 type of Citadel so far so did not have the chance to do the Pinacle boss. neither the other mechanic specific bosses. I play kind-of SSF but with some friends and we share items(but no external trade) so we are in standard in the same guild.

I am really enjoying POE2 Early access, Can't wait for the full release. And I want to possibly help GGG with my feedback.
Note that these are personal opinions, they might be wrong, or incomplete. or might be fixed by the simple fact of adding 6 classes and 3 acts with all the content attached to that at full release.

Gear:
Uniques: Something is off about poe2 uniques. can't really put my finger on it.
-the armors don't scale for late game(maybe tier them advanced/expert also ?)
- the wands can't be used in early if they drop in late.(maybe block just the skill not the item usage?)
- there are not really ok uniques. Either OP or Useless.
Runes :
- We should be able to replace runes either just destroy the old ones when new ones are placed or make a currency that clears the sockets (this would also be nice since corrupted items would be stuck with the runes added)
- there should probably be tiers of runes (like poe1 had tiers of craftable affixes)
Affixes/crafting:
- Do we really need the bad affixes that we have in poe1? light radius/1life regen per second..etc?
- Crafting a lot more user friendly than poe1. enjoy it a lot. would like a few more chase deterministic crafts. like exalt with a specific pool or custom chaos orb. like harvest? omens kind of do that.. but meh. Also would like to plug an item I have in the expedition craft screen.

Mapping :
-Too little diversity. hope new templates from acts 4-6 will solve this.
-Citadels are too late in the maps. there should be some content that is interesting before that/closer to the start point. like the black star / the infinite hunger appear in yellows tier maps in poe1
-More types of events like zen/untainted would be nice. the feeling of delving and finding a city or a specific drop type node is completely gone. I just go further for league mechanics that repeat. no real incentive to explore. no biomes. just a repeating field of the same.
-Lost Towers. I think everyone hates them and puts a tier1 waystone to just get it over. They are probably the most rewarding part of the content ( with the precursor tablets) and the least challenging. Also the layout is Sh*t. I want to put the tablets, I don't want to engage with the zone. So, make the zone better. change the layout. maybe levels with a boss on top, scepter of god style ?
-effects on map disappearing after death. I Think I prefer the mechanics not to disappear, especially the bosses. Not because I don't want to loose the loot, but because I like the idea of a boss blocking access to a part of the atlas and I have to overcome it to move further( or go around it )

Skills :
- We have to see the other classes to judge this so not much to say here. it's harsh to have just 1 type of 1hander and 6 classes for now.
- But from the existing stuff: WTF is wrong with slams and edges? I have 0.5 attack's speed, slam once and the aoe is canceled because I slammed near a edge.
- Dodge roll -> need more types like blink to change the dodge roll mechanic.
- Attribute requirements are stupidly high. you are locked in using dex skills with dex armor and so on. And even in that case you need dex on the ranger GEAR to use the ranger skills, the tree is not sufficient (Ranger was a random example is valid for all clases). I think is ok for the gear to be so high but skill requirements should be lower. Especially for hybrid builds. i think this happens beacause the travel nodes are 5 instead of 10 in poe2. but I see how making them 10 would be unbalanced for the attribute stacking builds.
-Early skill selection is bad for some classes. more diversity is needed in the first 2 choices of skills for each class.
-the whole combo skills design does not appear to be working. it's still spam 1 skill. activate buff. zoom zoom. I tried weapon swap, tree swap, combo skills. nothing is as efficient as the poe1 style builds.

Mobs/difficulty:
- Invulnerability on Mobs. Really... F*ck that Sh*t. the biggest timewaster most annoying thing ever. I would say Delete them. if you are attached and like them for some reason at leas put the invulnerability skill on a cooldown, so that they don't spam it forever and instead of having fun I wait for shades to appear or worms/snakes to emerge from the ground. an then maybe they have invulnerability aura... or proximal tangibility.
- General balance around 1Shots. this makes all builds be viable only if everything dies before attacking. and everyone goes for that. makes the game 1 dimensional and non-strategic in late-game
-The most difficult content is ACT 1 Normal. Seriously. the game gets easier the more you progress instead of the other way around.

I am an automation engineer myself and I work on harder and more tactile products than game, and I feel you haven't even touched the core problems of PoE2.

While some points are valid, rune tiers for example won't solve squad, since we have a lot of them anyway. I can agree that we need a replacement method because it's actually stupid why we don't have one by now. Probably to sync or destroy good items because you needed lightning in the past and now you need chaos so you need to replace the item just to minmax something else. Bad design from the box but it is what it is.

Regarding some of the points it's normal design to have items that drop late that can be stored for future chars...Normal progression should be find items try to craft them and play with them.

I feel like people are missing core concepts that are essential to be repaired before launch and I kept on mentioning some of them.

1. Gems are pointless. Right now sitting at level 90 with 3 chars and don't even pick them up from the ground. My gem stash is full of them and I feel like the current design was on purpose just to buy a gem tab, which I still feel is useless because gems in their essence are useless after a point.
2. Not having a method to de-level gems and having to backpaddle to were they drop is just play moronity, don't know what they expect us to do, have stocks of 10 gems of each level so that somehow when we need a lower gem we use the stocks ?
3. We need more options to craft, slamming stuff for random outcomes is just plain boring and feels like D4 craft roulette. Also as you stated what's the point with light radius when everything is lighted up in some zones, really just another affix to dilute the pool of good affixes.

I could go on but you get the point. Now some of your points were valid too but some things like rune tiers are just pointless...To be honest I would just remove runes completely and add an "enchantment bench", no point in having to store runes just to have them there and never use them :))

Ascendancy Trials: Removed completely. That single change will make this game the best ever.