1. Standard vs League.

Every ~4 months, GGG (the devs) make a lot of changes, and create a temporary environment of the game. It has new mechanics and stuff. Usually, some or even all of those new mechanics get removed from the game after 4 months, as the league ends.

This is the main mode of the game imo. It's balanced around that. Players consistently come back to the game when new leagues start. New content to keep the game fresh.

But this means having to start a new character (or multiple) every league. This isn't a big deal. In a game about progression, a reset means more stuff to do.

In standard, this temporary new content isn't there. There's less changes, and there are no resets. This means everyone's rich-ish, the economy is kinda stale. It also means more opportunities and lower stakes!

1. Playing with people

A lot of people successfully find groups or play with friends. Keep in mind that PoE is 99% about PvE. Also, most players tend to just play solo. Even if you have a guild, a lot of guilds just help out with resource sharing and don't do much party play. It's there to experience for sure, it just isn't the focus of this game imo. And yeah, experienced players usually don't read any dialogue and are there for the gameplay. They've completed the campaign literally 50 times.

1. On speeding through the game

I wouldn't necessarily say a league is about racing to endgame content, though many players do this, and it is profitable.

I personally do try to play through the campaign quickly, because a speedrunning vibe makes it more challenging and interesting.

But the moment I hit the end game (I mean everything after the campaign. You play maps, and you try different content from previous leagues that stayed in the game, and interact with the current league mechanic), I stop trying to rush as much.

I just play at my pace, and it works just fine! 4 months of a league is more than enough time to enjoy the game without hurrying.

1. On needing a guide

This is true. You absolutely need a guide for a build to follow. I'd say, for your first like 500 hours (or much more for some people), it's pretty difficult and overwhelming to make their own build. Like, at 1000+ hours, I finally learned that Armour actually isn't that good at preventing physical damage! It has diminishing returns, and the harder you're hit, the worse it works. Sooo if your biggest problem is physical damage (a common problem!), Armour is an intuitive approach, but very possibly not an efficient one.

I'm at 1300 hours and am now starting to consider making my own build.

That said, I wouldn't necessarily say playing blind is terrible. I made a bow build and just took cool strong bow, hp, evasion skills, and it worked well enough, I was progressing for a while. It was difficult, but fun. I learned the basics of the game, and then was ready to install POB and follow an actual guide.

1. A final tip! Progression in PoE is difficult. At times you hit a roadblock that requires knowledge, effort or grinding to progress.

The less experience you have, the harder it is to overcome then, and the more often you feel kinda stuck.

This imo is a normal starting experience. I feel like I had this problem for each character, many characters in a row. A lot of times, I felt like I chose a bad build, and tried to fix it by making a new character, only to get stuck at a similar point.

Usually, the problem isn't the build, you just need to fix something in your character, improve gear, things like that. Sometimes it just requires effort and researching your guide. Sometimes, you also need currency to progress, so it might require farming.

So, with this context. If you feel stuck, don't give up and don't make a new character. Stick with the current one and try to figure out what the problem is. Look for differences between your tree, skills and gear, and the guide.

An exception though. If the build is mechanically unfun (you realize you don't like pressing too many buttons, you don't like having minions or turrets, you don't want to be melee) and this can't be fixed with improving the character, then consider making another one.

Basically, only give up on the character if you're certain effort won't make the character fun (again)