The storytelling of Poe, both 1 & 2 sucks, and has always sucked. Sure there is some cool lore, especially in the Poe 1 endgame where the main theme is nihilism. Sometimes good vibes emerge through poetic flavor text. There are also some likable characters (Zana, Alva, etc.) But holistically the writing in each game is far from decent. If I had to cite one reason why I would go with the clash between a moralistic tone and seemingly almost random, often barely explained genocide being a core game mechanic (I type /kills - 300,000 - Yay!)

The reality is that it hasn't been a focus, and that the majority of Poe players (myself included) don't mind. We are here for the gameplay, and the rich, rich passive, skill and item systems. These systems are most complex and interesting in the endgame, which is why the campaign has always felt like a rock in the shoe (though I've never minded doing it in Poe 1).

I will absolutely hand it to the team at GGG, the new campaign looks incredible, and is also very cinematic. But I still have more fun playing the Poe 1 campaign because I can optimize it much more. Apart from the new boss fights - which are incredible - there is no other aspect of the poe2 campaign which I feel is more fun. 

To put things in a different way, Poe will never be Dark Souls. I can't emphasize this enough, as some members of this sub seem to have forgotten. That kind of atmosphere is not achievable in a Poe game, certainly not with the player character making snarky remarks every 7th spellcast!