I understand that not everybody’s experience can be exactly the same here but if you’ve been to the bottom of what the Crucible is with a maximized character I don’t think you can say that it has anything to do with the first hours of the game in terms of game feel.
My main grief here is consistency:
- If it is a pure Diablo-like, I don’t mind, let’s go.
- If it is a pure Souls-like, I don’t mind, let’s go.
- If it is a pure WhateverYouWanToCallIt-like, I don’t mind, let’s go.
But these games genre don’t have the same appeal and I don’t play them, or enjoy them, for the same reasons.
The only thing I ask is clarity and consistency in the design: so if I buy a cat, I get a cat, and if I buy a dog, I get a dog.
Not a mix of both where I have neither the taste of one long enough, nor the other.
Sounds like I eat cats and dogs, I don’t, but I hope you get the idea. 
And I don’t think it can be solved by any minor or major attributes or resources updates/upgrades/rework.
It needs to be dealt at the lowest level, where and when the development team agrees on the core design philosophy.