How many of you even group up

Back when poe1 first came out I remember starting every single league by joining randoms in the group finder... Had a blast, then they started introducing league mechanics that didn't fit well with group play and then it just immediately platued.

Do you guys join random groups in poe2 and if so what's your experience?

I'm half tempted to do a YouTube series where I force myself to be in a group at all times. My biggest worry is just to time to complete is the gatekeeper now... Convincing people to multi hour long acts is going to be very tough... Poe1 backtracking every now and again wasn't that bad and we would help a homie out but backtracking in this game is again... significantly longer.

I feel it just went downhill when they started releases league mechanics that didn't work well with groups.. tormented spirits, strongboxes, breach, essences, rogue exiles, abyss - all good league mechanics that didn't take you away from the current map, didn't have you wait around for ages, all the loot was tied to the existing drops.. they just worked well with however many players.

For all the hype and praise that settlers got... its takes you to an entire separate instance, away from everything and everybody else.. it's by far the least group friendly league mechanic yet... I don't understand why it wasn't a town hub that got better with community help... pooling resources.

I remember having more fun with grouping then i ever did one individual league mechanic. Now they don't want auction houses because they want character interaction... never mind that its auto responses all the time now. If they want actual interaction they need to make grouping easier to play the game with and more rewarding to incentivize it. I's seems the most basic stuff ever, I don't see why it isn't being done.

My easy solution:

1) Double the quest rewards (baring perm buffs obv) while doing the quest objectives while grouped. This wont mean anything to alts, but will make the league start a lot better at the best possible time of the league.

2) Have an NPC quest that specifically tells you to group up (under the guise of a really hard fight, doesn't actually need to be though) and direct them to the group board in Clearfell

3) Have a tutorial popup when the board is clicked that talks about the benefits of grouping.

4) Stop the unfriendly league mechanics

nobody groups up except to leech xp. and the people who are allowing the leeches are just trying to get around abysmal drop rates.

while doing the story grouping up for bosses often makes the bosses harder than they would be solo so there is little point to.