Waystone drops and acquiring

I'm only at tier 4 waystones and I'm already in the grinder trying to get a single tier 4 so I can make a tiny bit of progress toward my goal of completing 10 tier 4 maps. I for the life of me cannot understand why there was no change to the idea of having to progress backwards in POE2.

You've built an endless system with a giant map for people to explore and for some reason I'm buying tier 1 waystones for 7,000 gold to upgrade them. It's awful and honestly feels more like they'd like to sell mtx waystones but they know better and decided to pull it (I know that's not the case but that's how it feels as the player). I shouldn't have to waste points in waystone drops, I shouldn't have to progress backwards. There's a line to walk to have the game be challenging but I don't see how forcing people backwards is a part of that. If someone goes to a lower tier it should be because they need to grind for better gear to survive and it should be their choice. The vendor should sell waystones for the tier you're at and lower.

TLDR: Please stop wasting my time. I apologize, I'm clearly salty af right now.