Diablo III really has nothing on Path of Exile at this point other than graphics
You said you haven't played Path of Exile in over a year? Well, that's a mistake most people make when they cast judgement on Path of Exile. In the past year they revamped THE ENTIRE Endgame system along with adding subclasses that further provide more build diversity, and what has Diablo III done since then? Added a new season, a paid character class, and a special throwback event. The PoE developers truly love their game and community and aren't muddled by corporate greed or anything that has crawled up Blizzard's ass recently, and will continue to update their game with meaningful features.
I know you're probably talking about Diablo II but at this point Path of Exile and Diablo II are almost head to head in terms of quality of the gameplay, hell most of the team that are developing PoE are hardcore Diablo II fanatics/developers.
This game text a little while to REALLY get the swing of things IE the gems/skills linking them and how to read em. The passive tree, the ascendancy classes, flasks and the end game stuff ect ect. And of course the path of exile currency. Once its all understood its beyond fun, like...beyond fun and I still play Diablo I/hellfire Diablo II/LOD and two on going mods for each game and this is my favorite Action role-playing game but right and barely infront of Diablo II.
Fun fact: David Brevik one of the co-founders of Blizzard and the creator of Diablo actually went on to be the CEO of Gazillion Entertainment who made Marvel Heroes 2016 which is an MMO marvel version of Diablo, then left the company a year or so ago and now is on the Path Of Exile team.

Dec
Shaper seeds are tier based
Farming a specific map doesn't increase it's drop rate, it will just narrow the layout down. The benefits are to the market though. More map trading probably.

Nov
New Path of Exile players will be unable to drop eternals to compete
The value of eternals will skyrocket, helping only those who already own them. New players will be unable to drop eternals to compete.

Jan
Do the chaos clouds stack on top of each other causing super degen zones?
If im just being retarded about how something works someone should tell me because if im not the retarded person then this skill is the thing thats retarded.

Jan
In Path of Exile any decision at any point in time matters
Having cool armor skin =/= pay to win.Having 100 times more warehouse space = p2w. If it affects gameplay, its p2w.

Nov
To ever grace Path of Exile
I wouldn't mind it being based on maps, from the way the map system works on Path of Exile, I'd take anything over any map system as end-game

Dec
Interested to make good starter builds in Path of Exile
Path of Exile is tricky. End game bosses and maps are ridiculously hard. Without very optimal build strategy you will just waste your time on tier 1-2 maps forever.