Feedback around new PoE2 gem system

In this version, the system goes one step further than last Exilecon and items have no sockets anymore. Every character has exactly 9 white skill sockets.

Assumed intention:
Changing gear is never restricted by the skills you are using. Simplify balancing.

My worries: 
- The color of the skill gem color is essentially irrelevant aside from attribute requirements. Seems unnecessary to have the colors anymore.
- Disconnect of base type from playstyle: Why would you ever wear ES bases as a witch early if you don't need the blue sockets?
- No progression: You start with 9 sockets, end with 9 sockets and everyone has 9 sockets. I guess expansion through mods is possible, but I liked that the socket system was on top of the items and not one more mod.
- Exactly 9 skill sockets feels very arbitrary.

Proposal:
Find the middle ground to keep variance and differentiation but minimize friction especially late game
- low gear starts with one socket each of the bases respective color. Mixed base types choose one color random --> 5-6 skill sockets
- Number of sockets grows for larger base types over course of the campaign (e.g. higher body armours, special bases of other types) --> Range of 8-11 skill sockets
- Let Chromes reroll the color of the armour, so opportunity cost is low lategame
- Swapping gems between gear sockets smoothed out with a drag&drop feature to simplify shifts during levelling

All support sockets are in the gem (that I love). All gems received and uncut gems dropped have exactly 2 Sockets, always of the same color for each skill.

Assumed intention:
Eliminate brick scenarios, simplify balance around gems.

My worries: 
- Removes the single thing I was most excited about: dropping a 5L gem that is not your intended skill but close enough, and adapting on the fly (e.g. levelling ice spear but you drop freezing pulse 5L). Giving value to gem drops through variance. Being able to buy a 6L non-meta skill that someone dropped for cheaper, thus increasing build diversity.
- Second level on balancing, where more powerful gems are less available and finding off-meta gems with more links is good
- Always use exactly the same optimal supports for a skill, no optimization or variance during levelling.

Proposal:
Gems from rewards are standardized, but dropped and uncut gems still roll for number and color of sockets. Uncut gems can roll on drop, so you can choose skill depending on what roll (e.g. of you drop an uncut 6L you go for main skill or sell for a lot. Instead of now all uncut gems being identical)

Jewellers are separated into three orbs, each advancing number of sockets by one.
Chromes affect exactly one socket, and lets you literally choose the outcome color.

Assumed intention:
Eliminate brick scenarios, allow for continuous progression without risk.

My worries: 
- Feel: Orbs have such narrow purpose, that they feel like a menu option. You could replace all of them with a gold cost for an upgrade button.
- No variance: You will always prioritize your main skill, and always have optimal supports.
- You have an exact cost of your final skill setup before you start playing. Each drop feels like a checklist until final build (e.g. I need exactly 9 lesser jewels, 9 jewels, 5 greater jewels and 10 chromes. After that these currencies have no value to me).

Proposal: 
Jewellers:
Two currencies
- Jeweller: Same rarity as now, rerolls Nr of sockets. Narrow distribution with strong tendency towards 3 supports, with variance of 1.
- Greater Jewellers: Same rarity as proposed greater jewel. Adds one socket to current skill gem.
- Intention is the same, but only with two currencies. No one is complaining about getting a 5L in PoE, that is reasonable. The problem is the spam for a 6L. Gameplay is you Jeweller a couple of times to get to 4 supports, then you use greater Jeweller to get to 5. If you are rich and can't be bothered, you greater Jeweller from the start (important: single orb type used three times instead of having to swap through 3 different orbs). Keeps variance in rerolling and sometimes you will get lucky. You also have a chance at a 5 socket even if you can't find the greater Jeweller.
Chrome:
Again two currencies
- Chrome: Same rarity as now, rerolls all colors of sockets with weighting for colors depending on attributes of base gem.
- Greater Chrome: Somewhat rarer. Rerolls a single socket, also with weighting but forgiving. Can also be used to roll color of item sockets of (1).
- Gameplay is you reroll colors of gems up to an acceptable state, use greater chromes to finish the 1-2 remaining off-colors. Removes the menu-like nature of choosing the output color, but remains very deterministic. And keeps the extra cost if you want to off-color some sockets without overly penalizing extreme cases.

- All in all, I think this system retains the goal of reducing brick scenarios and not having to click thousands of times, but retains sufficient variance to be surprised and not have progression around sockets be a literal deterministic curve upwards.

New systems have brought new UI elements, especially for skill gems.

My worries:
I understand this is all in development and a pass is probably planned, but just in case: in my opinion UI elements and menus are one of the weak points of PoE and still need a lot of work in PoE2. Some examples:
- In a world where we are restricted to exactly 9 skills, there is no reason to have us scroll up and down to see all gems. Many elements can be reduced in size and optimized to avoid this.
- If weapon swapping is an intended build option for most builds, choosing the weapon should not be a check box in the bottom corner of the additional info for each gem (Proposal: a glider left or right, directly under the skill icon, much brighter)
- Old issue of life, Mana (now also spirit) and debuffs being each in opposite corners of the screen. The console UI for example handles this issue much better 
- NPC menus being simple lines of text. Separating options by lore/gameplay was already great, but adding some line separation between options and making them more clicky would bring it to the next level.