League Mechanics vs Gem Balancing

I was unaware of Path of Exile and wasn't introduced to it until Affliction league. This game is so layered that I still find myself learning about all of the mechanics. The vast assortment of uniques, gems and passive distribution allows for virtually unlimited playstyles which I find appealing. As a fan of the Diablo series, I found the games to be too limiting of late, leaning toward cookie cutter builds that are mind numbingly boring.

As I previously stated, I didn't start playing until Affliction, a decade after launch. I didn't even realize that the rucksack wasn't a basic component of the game. Even now having played for a while and bought all the special stash tabs, I'd still like to have the rucksack again. As well, I'd like to have permanent mercenaries back from the previous league.

I am an altoholic, I have 21 characters that I enjoy playing. Certain league mechanics such as Necropolis or Settlers introduce event content that doesn't necessarily effect how your theorycraft your character. Leagues such as Affliction of Keepers employ stat boosting mechanics in the form of charms and grafts that require one to tailor a character for 1 season. At the time I started with Affliction, I was so behind the learning curve to really appreciate if charms were a significant boost. A lot of the Mercenaries builds that I and other people were using wouldn't be effective without the buffs supplied by the mercenary. For people who don't care about abandoning a character after a season, that's fine and feel free to criticize this post.

The purpose of this post is to pro/con a league like Keepers. Revamping the breach mechanic is fine, albeit a little tedious. There is a difference between the crafting system of Necropolis graveyard and grafts from this league. There are roughly 800 gems in this game, many of which aren't used in any viable endgame builds. Rather than a focus on rebalancing gems, developers have opted to use stat amplifying mechanics, which only make the more OP and popular builds more preferable. I am concerned that there are too many vendor trash gems and if there isn't a rebalancing, PoE could go down the same path as the Diablo series where armour set bonuses are required for endgame progression with a limited choice for playstyle.

As of now, PoE is my favorite game, forsaking all others, that I recommend to everyone. Shitposters need not respond, but I am interested to know how my fellow players feel about the current state and trajectory of the game.

P.S. "Life is pain highness, anyone who says differently is selling something"...that being said, buy my shit on trade. See you in Wraeclast.