A massive QoL for melee would be increasing melee strike range while swinging

If you're using a strike skill, it is possible for enemies to move away from you mid-swing, causing you to either miss the attack or cancel it. This only applies if you don't use the attack without moving feature (either the toggle, or holding shift).

This seems reasonable at first, but the player pathfinding system will move your character just enough so the enemy is in melee strike range, and not more. This makes it possible for enemies that don't have the default "run at the player" AI to dodge attacks by just moving slightly away from the player, even if you have high melee strike range.

I think a good solution for this would be to add an innate percentage increase in melee strike range only while swinging so the player pathfinding system can place you close enough to attack, and still allow you to hit in most cases.

Yes, I know I can just move towards the enemy and attack in place, but it just feels so awkward having to do that when normal click targeting works in 99% of cases.

Yes, trying to melee attack a moving enemy is definitelty more of a chore than it should be. PoE2 apparently addresses this by having the melee animations include a step forward; I know that PoE1's rigging makes this a challenge, but something like this is still needed. The melee buffs have improved the feel of melee, and weapon progression is less of a chore now, but it still use some improvements to the underlying systems.

Por ejemplo: adding a stagger effect to melee hits. There are several different mobs that just slowly glide away from you, and who do not react at all to being hit. Not a huge problem for a ranged or AoE build, but it still makes for frustrating gameplay if you're trying a traditional melee style of gameplay. It doesn't have to stun the enemy, or interrupt their spell casting, it just needs stop them in their tracks long enough for your attack animation to play.

On the whole, though, the melee gem and more weapon quality changes are a huge improvement. Melee isn't perfect yet, but it's much better. Definitely progress in a positive direction.

Yes please!
Or just make it so that the attack lands if the target was in range when it was started.

Either way, this would make those super annoying vaal snakes and ghosts much nicer to deal with.