i am playing the game wrong, and i need some tips

I have spent close to 5k hours into this game, this league like all other leagues i got burnout in 1 month. I had to quit as i was starting to feel sick from playing too much.
Anyways i cant bring myself to make a new char as it is meaningless , i already got too much money so that i dont experience any progression anymore.
So here i am, farming divines wich result in me seeing no progression in game, every charracter i make is already with bis items or close to that.
The only time when im having a magical time in this game is league start when i experience progression, constant upgrades and can play 3 weeks the same character without getting bored.
But after league start its always the same ♥♥♥♥, you pile up a huge amout of divines, wich you use to make a new charracter and buy all the cool items , and thats it now you have a ready made charracter with nothing to upgrade ....umm and just farm? to do the same ♥♥♥♥ again?
I dont know.... am i playing the game wrong ?
I want to constantly experience progression...but when you farm 200 divs and dump it all into BiS gear only to do that ♥♥♥♥ for the third or fourth charracter you basically never experience progression and you burnout quick.

So how can i play this game on trade league and still experience some progression?

this league i farmed close to 2 mirrors, and gave it all away in chat because it was meaningless...i could of made any charracter with good gear...i would experience no progression and i would just grind more divines...all to do it again ? pls guys how the hell should i play to experience constant upgrades and progression ?

(ive considered SSF but ive never crafted much and am clueless about SSF ways)

go play ruthless then

It's not that you are playing the game wrong, it's just that you want/need something specific from the game and at some point the game can no longer give you that. Personally i don't care much about progression. I still have plenty of upgrades i could make to my character but i can already do everything there is so i don't even see a point in minmaxing further. I just enjoy playing him so i keep doing that. I don't think it's something you can change. If you see no point playing after a certain point then just don't. Quitting after a month and coming back next league is a perfectly reasonable way of doing things. Only thing you could try doing is slowing yourself down. Don't play as much during the first month, don't use metabuilds/farming strats or go SSF or Ruthless where progession is slower.

As has been partially suggested maybe try [SSF] [HC] [Ruthless].

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(ive considered SSF but ive never crafted much

In general you can just use Rog or the new item gamble for most pieces. Neither require much knowledge.
In current leage the recomb is more powerful, see here: https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/1exyavx/325_updated_guide_to_recombinators/

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and am clueless about SSF ways)

Its the same game so all you need is an item filter that works for it.