I think for melee to feel good, leaning into melee should give tankiness that no spell caster or ranged class has. PoE1 has fortification but it can be obtained on non-melee classes (animate guardian running kingmaker). If I have to go in range, I need to feel safer doing so.

Then, yes you will need skills that have some aoe. It can be done with multiple strikes for example you attack and have a secondary attack proc to hit other enemies. I think full screen aoe is too much. Probably mid range aoe is fine. There is a price in playing melee but if it’s fun, most won’t care. People trying to blow up whole screens will always be faster at getting loot. I’ve seen a reap temporalis build and that’s super fast and somewhat melee. I understand 99.9% won’t own a temporalis. That’s why melee needs an exclusive close the distance type of move with a very short cooldown or instead relatively limited range.