Well, then back to track:
We were talking about the crafting system, and hence inherently the whole itemization system. Without taking into affect tertiary aspects like economies, which can play a role but don’t allow the underlying mechanics to simply move away from core design aspects upholding their functionality long-term.
Several there are actually?
‘Build your item’ is based upon acquisition of the individual parts, after assembling you cannot change it for example, or only at a substantial cost like loosing a portion of the parts randomly (for example).
This is a purely drop-centric system, not a craft-centric one.
The difference in-between those is if the power is put either into picking up things and using them ‘as is’ or if you change things around after picking them up.
In the build-box style one you use pieces ‘as is’.
Same with the augmentation one, the core drop itself stays the same and cannot be exchanged, you would’ve your ‘35% res’ on it and it stays 35% res.
Augmentations would solely be fixed additions to it universally applying. To counteract the RNG of drops. A more powerful drop still has a more powerful end product, and a less powerful drop a less powerful end-product.
The difference solely is that you can fix shortcomings of an item this way. ‘If it had just dropped with some fire res, then I could use it!’ → fire res goes on, augment place used up.
Also obviously the augmentations need to be solely an enhancement and not the majority of power, otherwise the percentile of value for the build which drops directly hold is reduced accordingly.
Empowering on the other hand is craft-centric, absolutely! It’s inherently about changing a item.
But as mentioned… you cannot have a non-craft game of this complexity, you’ll have to take the sour taste of it with you, there is no realistic expectation of a functioning product of this scale to adhere to that. They either do implement it or they fail, the target audience simply is too small otherwise.
That’s… a divine orb roll from PoE… exactly 1 to 1 taken over… nothing else 
The cost is just another version of the same item rather then a generic currency.
You cannot have both worlds here, it’s either/or, they’re mitially exclusive.
You either have a shit experience by getting screwed over along the way unless you’re extremely lucky… because you got so many individual things which all have to go right while also each one being a highly variable outcome that you’ll run into a time where it just goes against you in a major way and puts a stop-gap to any progression before it reasonably should.
Or you instead allow it to take time to counteract the variance there, needing to gradually build up to achieve something.
In both systems you can need the same time to achieve the same end-point… but it’s filled entirely different with what you experience during that time. One’s filled with individual massive heights and severe droughts in-between… the other lacks the massive heights but you’re not parched in-between either.
Gear in video games is described as the following:
A equippable (check), item (check) that enhances character’s attributes or abilities (check).
Jewels are gear in PoE. Who ever told you that you cannot use the passive tree for using gearing methods? That’s just some arbitrary limitation you came up with yourself out of nowhere.
Fine if you see it as such… but not even remotely close to the definition.
And what does that have to do with bypassing itemization progress? 
I mean, I get that you wanna return to the core differences of the itemization via the ‘one and done’ crafting methodology versus the ‘forever crafts’ methodology. But that came outta the left field.
But here goes:
Theoretically ‘yes’. Practically ‘no’. It’s a risk/reward based aspect. Taking a high risk gamble with a chance to reduce the value to the starting point is at time better then to take the safe route but having to re-do it dozens or hundreds of times.
It functionally has not really a difference as it upholds in both cases the general time limitation to achieve a result. Either through limitation of usage for materials or by keeping it fully inside the drop system.
The major aspect there is though that it’s a top-end system which acts as a RNG reductor, which adds another stage. Hence instead of ‘2 steps’ you now got ‘3 steps’ for example. You still have - for example - a total 1 in 6000 chance to achieve the same outcome… but in the 2-step system you need - for example - to do it with the RNG of 1 in 3000 for the drop and the 1 in 20 for the follow-up.
In the 3-step you only need the 1 in 60 for the drop, get a 1 in 5 for the materials and a 1 in 20 for the follow-up.
The end-result for both is each ‘1 in 6000’ but each segment is simply smaller with 3 steps.
It’s a rough example without any clear cut showcase, solely to represent the underlying system it follows. The measures in which those ‘steps’ are handled are of no matter, just that they exist.
Once more the same end-point though:
The chance for the acquisition of a fitting item which is usable ‘as is’ without any changes at all is atrocious in LE. It absolutely is not in PoE though, you just need to look at the value of items deemed by the community for what items are worth to see it.
For example:
A base item with a good potential to become ‘something good’ costs around 5 mil in LE, that’s uncrafted. A finished craft which is the top-end for that same base costs 200 mil though. Clearly a vast disparity, right?
Now Gold is a bit of a bad indicator but can still be used at least, it’s just messy when comparing it.
In PoE we got divines. A ‘decent item’ is usually between 2-10 divines of value. That’s a ‘as is’ item which is put on, the majority of end-game builds work on a budget between ~20 div up to endless. But most begin to ‘shine’ between 50-100 div budget total for everything.
This price-range is the equivalent of a Headhunter unique, which is a chase-unique, a top-end item, one of the most expensive ones in the game. It’s worth ‘a full build’. Hence why people say when you drop one you can finish your build to get done with everything.
The equivalent in LE is a red ring, it’s one of the rarest uniques existing, extreme power and when you sell it… you basically bypass all viable content progression with the reward from it.
Can we agree with it up to that point? It’s after all a rather apt comparison.
So… a red ring in LE costs between 500-800 mil in Legacy. We got 11 slots solely for your direct combat gear, without idols taken into consideration.
A finished crafted T7 + level chest piece costs around 200mil for the meta builds in Legacy.
That means best case we can afford 4 pieces of out 11 pieces of gear. Top-rolled class idols cost 100mil+ too by the way.
This is already an issue, to achieve either of both games you need to have experience in either itemization and/or trading to get to your goal after all, that’s beyond the majority of players always. So extra steps are commonly taken which causes the timeframe to become so large for the norm of a dedicated but not veteran player.
So, if we take it solely from the Headhunter/Red Ring perspective alone we can also establish another comparative baseline.
The average end-game player in LE is ~500c, that’s clearly end-game, Aberroth worthy.
For Path of Exile it’s T16 maps, farming em. Hence also the ability to deal with Maven already.
In neither case those boss-fights would be ‘comfortable’ or ‘easy’, but they’re definitely in the doable range for the respective players. So we have a baseline.
Since we would need a time comparison otherwise - which is a bit hard to establish, easier for PoE then LE actually though - I’ll go first with an example from the economic side, since that showcases it easier.
To farm up items at 500c we can expect a return of around 30-40 mil average per hour, without bad or good luck. There will be 1 or 2 idols with value in there… maybe a few exalted that are a good base/Affix combo, rolls-ranges and so on all included to make up that value.
In PoE you’ll get roughly 5 div/hour for a farming strat, most of them provide it, needing a little less knowledge base to achieve it but also not including any lucky drops there which will happen from time to time.
So, to achieve the 500 mil range a LE player needs a dedicated 12,5 hours of play-time for a red-ring.
For all 11 items it’s hence ~35 hours total playtime for a build. That’s massive.
In comparison a PoE player needs… 10 hours. End of the line, it’s 10 measly hours after core progression to reach the common ‘end-line’ of playing.
So already the itemization in LE is clearly more stringent then in PoE.
If we take it at a roughly 1 in 20 success rate of crafts this leads to the outcome of 100 mil per item anyway in value. Since bases cost around 5 mil.
Cutting the time down to around 17 hours of effort needed this way. Still 70% higher (while rounding down twice) then comparably in PoE.
Why does this happen?
Because LE got the same RNG methodology then PoE, their drop-limits are a lot lower though. The game is entirely based around crafting as a follow-up, it’s a integral mandated aspect of it.
How many items have you picked up and used ‘as is’ at 500c+? It happens in PoE still, rarely… around 5-10 hours of farming and actually picking up items to make it happen, but it does.
People just don’t do it since it’s fiddly and the focus solely on resources is more time-efficient. SSF though absolutely does exactly that for a reason, no economy.
So now that wouldn’t be a fully apt comparison though, after all ‘as is’ often is not viable, so we go a bit more lenient. Once again a comparison which is roughly equivalent.
A ‘finisher’ task is allowed!
In PoE that includes things like ‘I fill that empty Affix slot’ with a exalted, a conqueror orb or a bench-craft. Hence always a ‘one and done’ method. Exactly in your acceptable range.
Instead of ‘fiddling around’ with the crafting in any way.
So the baseline for a similar experience in LE would be Havoc or Redemption only. So solely a shifting of stuff… the last ‘polishing moves’.
Once again… how often has that happened in 500c+ for you?, for me it did exactly never, not a single time.
That’s a major problem now, is it? When the game you say is ‘focused on crafting’ provides you with more viable drops then the system which is supposed to be drop-centric primarily.
Hence the follow-up of the crafting system is also to be seen in a entirely different light. Crafting in PoE is used to bypass the drop RNG and hence repetitive picking up and sorting like it’s done in LE. That’s the goal for people there.
It’s not that they don’t have the option for it, it’s still viable, SSF successfully does it since ages and competes fairly well with people playing trade for finishing the content. It’s not like SSF people in PoE don’t finish the content, absolutely not! Heck… there’s even the ‘Gauntlet Event’ which should showcase just how far beyond any reasonable power level you can build without anyone helping you out. And since always the same people are at the top places to boot that also means it’s reliable. Otherwise we would see the leaderboard there completely different each time as it would be purely limited by RNG, but it isn’t. All’s been acquired personally, with miniscule amounts of crafting as that would stop people from actually progressing and hence making em fall down and not win, crafting is high RNG after all.
So please stop comparing it in that manner, it’s unfitting and not in any way realistic.
The core difference between both games is the needed knowledge base to achieve your goals. In LE you can shut off your brain and still go for top-end stuff as it’s as straightforward as can be. In PoE it’s simply knowing which things to do. It’s not that you’re enforced to craft for ages… it’s what people not only enjoy doing there but also what saves them substantial amount of tedium, which is why they do it.
The alternative is more reliable even in PoE then what the core aspect is supposed to be in LE.
Has been the case for years.
I never said that.
I said that it’s one of the core reason people state when leaving LE.
Besides ‘there’s nothing left to do’.
If it’s in the top reasons then you kinda got to think a bit about it.
‘Nothing left to do’ is after all addressed by you. So why are you ignoring the ‘I can’t find a way to progress my character further’ argument which follows right after even?
If you take a economic exchange into consideration the mechanics after all underly a secondary measure… so the situation changes. Let’s stay at SSF for such stuff hence, makes more sense.