Somewhat Sad

The situation regarding PoE1 is understandable. However, I just wanted to point out something—I hate to even entertain the idea, but it is important to take into consideration.

So many people are dismissing the current situation with "it's just a minor setback" or "PoE2 has a wider audience so of course it's important to focus on it." While it may be true that it's still too early to jump to conclusion, I have witnessed a similar situation happened before; a similar sentiment used to be said about the Diablo franchise. However, we see Blizzard abandoned Diablo 2 for Diablo 3 and then Diablo 3 for Diablo 4. The people that disregard the situation about PoE1 in favor of PoE2 should take a moment to reconsider: if GGG can disregard PoE1 for PoE2, then they can also do the same to PoE2 if they want to, say, create a PoE3. Blizzard used to be hailed with their transparency and delivered promises as GGG, yet we see that success often drives a company to bury the original fans that got them there in the first place.

While I still retain trust in GGG, it is not without cautions. As a once-diehard Blizzard fan, I see the current situation as GGG taking that soulstone and embedding it into its forehead.

I remember when I mentioned playing Diablo 2 and people would tell me how they would love to also play the game. Now, if I mention that I play Diablo 3 or Diablo 4, they look at me like I'm some kind of idiot (even though Diablo 4 is considered financially successful). I sincerely hope that in an effort to reach a wider audience, GGG does not forget their core.

Of course a newer game needs and gets most development power.
And usualy it's better because developer learn.

But GGG told us PoE 1 is kept alive and in developement too.
The first is partly true (servers still on), the second not.

I hardly believe the majority of PoE 2 players like the Ruthless Vision of PoE 2 more than PoE 1. I think the great number of players at PoE 2 start showed the great interest in PoE and maybe the weaker state of other ARPG.
Compared to older Diablo versions these numbers are ok but not out of range.
It gave GGG a lot of money.

PoE 2 has good ideas and I think it's not so difficult to change some things nearer to PoE 1 - if they want this!

Nobody expect balancing, end game and other things to be finished without player feedback and testing.

But my worst concerns are the design decisions. Less loot (ok PoE 1 had too much), huge areas with reset after death, even more randomness than in PoE 1 and less crafting, only 1 death per "map", each support gem only 1x, ...

Some of these are so silly - do we players realy want this?
(= Want the majority of PoE 2 players this?)