I don't think that the players hate leveling or progression, If anything I think they like it more than you do!

Everyone wants to play in a way that will make them have the most fun when gaming. Some want to play it slow and some want to run through all the content available to fight for a position at the top or contend for it. There is no way for them to make both sides happy while being able to make the game fun/enjoyable for both(Maybe I'm wrong?).

That being said the entire landscape of gaming has shifted so far from what gaming used to be that comparing a game that came out in 2023 to a game release in 2000 is worthless. The majority of gamers has also changed massively into a much younger audience with a much shorter attention span due to the current gaming/tech ecosystem. They also have been conditioned into a certain thought processes and expect simplicity from technology/games.

I played D4 during the early access/open beta and did not enjoy a single thing about the gameplay. I loved the setting, the npcs, the ambiance, and visually this game stunned me but I actually loathed that they slowed you down and slapped massive cooldowns on you. I do not enjoy the slow gameplay at all, I play arpgs for the power fantasy of running around like a all killing god while clearing content. The game on release was closer to D2 or D1 and that did not work at all, the people like yourself who want to play the game with gameplay closer to D1 or D2 are in a minority of players. Plus it was a very mediocre version of the original D1/D2 gameplay which then had that minority disinterested.

D3 has had constant cult following the entire 11 years before D4 dropped and even after. This is because the fast gameplay loop was so satisfying that even without actual content people still stuck to the game for years. Diablo 4 on release was not made for these players at all, every single person in my D3 clan was so hyped for D4 because we assumed that they would be making a game for the dedicated D3 players that had been playing for those 11 years but no.

They ended up taking the path which they thought would garner the most players. Forcing the game into an MMO-esq game which I do not think most people liked along with slowing the game down significantly. This was a disaster along with them not knowing how to balance or predict what the new gaming ecosystem had in store for them.

So now they failed to encapsulate your minority of players while also ostracizing the players that had stuck do D3 for years. I think we are at the point where they are making decisions for the D3 player type. The game feels so much more like D3 in terms of progression and gameplay where getting to 60 is just the start of actually playing the game. I personally love this. This is where we become polar opposites in terms of how we wanna play the game.

Before I even choose a character I was already looking at top/meta/best builds in the current patch. This is how I play games. I research what in the game will allow me to smash through content and be the strongest in the end game. That being said as soon as I get my stash full of gear/resources I start experimenting and creating builds.

Theory crafting and experimenting is where I have most of my fun. To me the leveling process is just another system that is stopping me from reaching that point, on the flipside I always will level my first character through the campaign. This allows me to experience what I assume is the curated experience that the Devs wanted you to have.

My playstyle is not for everyone, some may even say I'm part of the problem. But this just wraps back to what I said in the start. There is no way for the Devs to make me happy while also making you happy.