Leveling skill gems in poe2 sux

Leveling skill gems feels bad. I can't kill mobs to level up my skills I have to wait for GGG to say in this zone or this tier of map you "get" to get a spell upgrade. In short I cant just play / grind to get stronger. It makes me not want to play because I can't upgrade my spells or attacks from just playing. I'm almost lvl 70 and have not had a skill upgrade since early act 3 cruel and I am in maps. So there is an obvious pain point there but I use this example to explain how I have felt the whole time. This is far from the only issue with the game but it is the most constant pain point I have experienced throughout the whole campaign.

TLDR: Skill gem upgrading system feels unrewarding, tedious, gate kept by GGG and more like a mobile game system.