The game is a mess, no direction, just a jarbled mess

The games Direction is so unclear, that im not sure where it is actually going at this point.

If you want more methodical and slower Gameplay then there are simply to much Monsters overall. When you do that, then reducing the number of Monsters, but making them significicantly harder would be the way to go.

I would not want to paly this tbh. i dont paly ARPGs to have a slow methodical Gameplay. There are enough games out there to do that. Even tho most have a different Playing Perspective.

But if you keep the monster count as it is, then you have a huge issue at hand. The Players themself are to weak and progress fast and get through maps fast. And Methodical gameplay simply does not work with a large number of monsters, well not with the current game, for that to work you would have to redesign classes and skills completely. That probably not gonna happen which leads to the point where only a fraction of possible builds are actual viable Options. Lightning spear for example and right now cold snap is especially common. Bonestorm is another viable Option, but there is where it mostly ends. Res of the Builds are simply slow.

And a game like Path of Exile 2 is very dependent on how fast you can finish a map. 0.1.0 had way more variety with functioning Builds. Even atr this point of the League.
You completely gutted Hexblast for example. Which was frankly a very stupid decision.

There is something underneath there that i like otherwise i wouldn't have put almost 500 hours in but increasingly the game feels like a collection of the worst possible game design choices to make it less enjoyable as it could be.
0.1 was rough around the edges but i assumed those would get smoothened off during next couple updates, instead a lot more was added to the roughness.

Agree. I simply can't do "slow and methodical" gamplay when 30 superfast mobs jump at me and I have no 1-hit skill to defend myself. I takes forever to slow-kill such horde, provided that I will survive dodging and running around the whole map.....

I have to fully agree there. The initial idea of "slow and methodic" would be great if this approach would actually work. I don't know but if there are more than 3 enemies attacking me then I need adequate power or defenses to counteract.

What we had in 0.1 was the same level of zooming around like we saw in many other ARPGs - but only to a few select classes and builds.

0.2 now feels like it's emphasizing on the original idea of "slow and methodic gameplay" but completely falsifying that by poor drops, nonexistent crafting and inefficient skills.

Again only a few select builds are viable and the speed for those viable builds is beyond what the original vision suggested. Maybe we just read something different but right now it feels like they're trying to force the mechanics of poe1 into poe2 instead of reinventing the game.

I understand that poe2 was originally designed as an expansion to poe1 so finding all of the original mechanics is no surprise. The issue is that everything that makes a good game seems to be left out or nerfed into the ground.

Clearly players have a very different understanding of fun gameplay contrary to what the game director envisions...which is sad.

Again, I have to agree: It's a mess currently without any clear direction.