I played PoE1 before it even appeared on steam(pre-support gems) and I truly believe that the game was never THAT good and only kicked off because D3 was, somehow, EVEN worse.
The underlying problem is same as in D2 - lack of reasons to fight for. For example Total War gives you diplomacy. Its shit and seems to be worthless since you'll declare war on everyone anyway BUT it motivates you and gives you reasons to keep on fighting battles.
PoE2 is better on all fronts but mostly because Witch is sexo and I'm a coomer.