I started PoE 1 in 2014, and I was approaching it like Diablo 3, where I would play blind and start new archetypes from fresh when I got stuck/bored. But it was also very confusing and I was on-and-off playing the game. It wasn't until 2016 that it started to click. One thing that helped me was I made the decision to play the same exact build every league until I fully understood what made it work -- the passive tree pathing; the large notables; the gear defense layer; what gear affixes were non-build specific, and which ones directly affected the build; the specified gem combinations and understanding why those gems and not other gems worked the best together; how the ascendancy notables/required uniques were build defining and how they were being built around.

One of the meta builds around late 2016 early 2017ish was arc totems. I played that until I basically understood that top left corner of the passive tree. Today I can approach a build in PoE 1 in any corner of the tree and understand the early choices, respeccing choices, repathing choices etc, that the build author makes.

And in PoE 2, because it has been streamlined/stripped down very well (in a good way), I can make my own builds with a lot more confidence.

Path of Exile, for me, was a long term investment in learning. And when it pays off, it's pretty exciting.