Balance/Market question.

Took a break from this game for most of a year because I was bored and felt "Pidgeon holed" into specific skills, builds, and gear just to do end game content coupled with the amount of time it took to acquire the gear for a casual player seemed unobtainable due to the dependency on the market and how terrible the prices were, it was a slog.

It would be amazing to be able to play the game however you wanted and still enjoy the game without needing to follow guides/builds that are all pretty much the same thing or be 100% reliant of the market and the people who jack up the prices casuals can't afford.

Has any of this changed?

You sound jaded in your post so it is difficult to give you honest input but here is a shot.

"Pidgeon holed" - A meta will always form and wealthy players will swap builds to try and use the meta to farm efficiently.

"acquire the gear for a casual player seemed unobtainable" - The game takes time, the better you are at being efficient with your time the faster you will progress.

"The market" - Prices ebb and flow with time, some become worthless the longer a league progresses, others become more valuable. Try to find the valuable loot.

"play the game however you wanted and still enjoy the game without needing to follow guides/builds" - That's the neat part, you can.

tl,dr: The game has a lot of stuffs, the faster you are at learning (or the more time you have to learn) these stuffs the easier the game becomes.