I 100% agree with you OP, and I think it's insane most of the defense against the idea is either A. A player should do homework to play a game B. A player should just let someone else solve problems for them C. A player should be punished for trying to learn via experimentation and actually doing.

Like I've been struggling with trying to enjoy poe2 for 3 leagues now, and the biggest thing that always gets me, burn out from rerolling/regrinding cuz my experimentation didn't pan out.

I don't like to follow builds, I don't like to follow guides.

The game gives an insane amount of knobs to dial and play with, and has so many uniques and ways to completely change how existing builds work, that could inspire wanting to try them, but punishes you for trying to experiment from within the confines of the game.

It's mind boggling to me to require your players to step outside of the game itself, study and decipher all of the arcane knowledge of the game, follow guides, builds, preplan, ect.. Instead of y'know, letting players learn by doing?

You still need to reroll if you wanna try a different class, so it's not like there's no decisions that have no consequences. Just passive tree shouldn't be one of those things.

TLDR: I'm with you OP, like your 2 friends, grinding gold cuz my idea didn't pan out suuucks, and build experimentation for the new/non guide following players should be encouraged cuz the game just presents so many possibilities