POE2 is still desperately missing the crafting bench

Especially in times like this for low end players like myself who missed out on the pre-nerf abyss farming, and are now hopelessly behind in terms of economic power, especially in a league where crafting power took as massive a step backwards as it did with the removal of the omen of homogenized exaltation, the baseline of power and character functionality provided by the POE1 crafting bench shows as sorely missing.

The amount that I have to reach into trade to solve my resistance and attribute problems, build my defenses, and abridge my gear is a proxy for the amount I need to care about the state of the economy, and how many fubgun disciples injected divines into the economy before abyss farming was nerfed, or how many group farming juicers are continuing to dwarf my loot earning potential and compete for good items. The more I have to care about these things and the more I feel pressured to no life the game to keep up with my goals, the less I'm interested in playing.

When I ask myself why I almost never feel this economic pressure in POE1, but I always feel it very strongly in POE2, I always come back to crafting, and especially the crafting bench. Crafting is incidentally suffering a lot this league from the (I admit justified) removal of the omen of homogenizing exaltation. Making strong gear is a lot harder and more expensive, and what is available on trade is consequently weaker and more expensive. Removing that omen and not adding in new tools to fill the gap was a mistake, but the thing that is really needed is a crafting bench.

The power baseline of 1 mod on every piece of gear that you want, at a T3-4 power level just cannot be understated, and that baseline is a huge part of what makes POE1 league economies stable for much longer than POE2 league economies, and contributes immensely to the longevity of that game over this one.

Please add the crafting bench. It is an essential part of POE, and it is sorely missed in POE2.