POE definitely has a "rare item" problem. Hopefully its fixed in POE2, but I'm not holding my breath. One thing I liked about D3 (still haven't played 4 yet past beta) over POE was actually getting meaningful upgrades as drops.
However, POE still had the better dopamine hits on the drops. Not sure if it was the loot filter sounds, or if they just spaced the drops out better in terms of getting upgrades.
Items, currency, jewels, gems whatever the fuck the point is to make your character more powerful. The loop is always about progressing, being able to kill faster, kill stronger, survive more and if it stops in anyway for extended periods of time it feels shit regardless if its POE or D4. Hopefully some of the QoL stuff they fix before S1, and from what people have been saying in this thread it sounds like they're on the right path so that's a good sign.