Create a Ruthless and Normal mode, and make the current version the Ruthless one

Drops are absolutely abysmal.

I have picked up and identified every single blue or yellow item throughout the campaign, and apart from a tiny handful, have vendored, salvaged or disenchanted every single one as they were useless even as crafting bases.

As for crafting, I picked up a total of 12 exalts throughout the campaign, which made them far too rare to risk using on the bases I picked up.
This made the campaign an unenjoyable 66 hour exercise in tedium.

On reaching maps, loot drops are still awful, and I have just lost any enthusiasm to play, as have virtually all of my guild.

Scarcity is not fun.
Scarcity to the point where you can't progress your character is game breaking.
I'm going to take a break and hope you do something to fix this.

As I wrote in the title, the current game mode should be set as Ruthless as in Poe 1, and there should be a separate mode without the ridiculous scarcity.
Players who enjoy working with nothing can play Ruthless, and the rest of us can actually enjoy the game.