The problem with D3 pre-RoS was a problem of frustration. Then, you were farming for gold to get the items you want off the AH. You weren't farming for loot yourself.

Now, with the AH gone, you are directly farming for the loot. It's a world of difference, and because (legendary) loot is account bound, they are able to increase the drop rate of good loot easily by a factor of 1000x. A typical person might only interact with some maybe 10-20 strangers online, in D2, the drop rate of certain items was so rare that even meeting someone online with that item was an achievement in and of itself. With the AH pre-RoS, they had to nerf the drop rate drastically to account for the AH trading of the best items.

This leads to a totally different game with a totally different feel, RoS is now worthy to be a D2 successor.


[In unrelated news, this is exactly what I feel about landtrading - the presence of the landtrading mechanic has warped the game from "competitive competition" to "cooperative competition" for the top 10 spots. It is no longer the same game, the feel is totally different. As a consequence, I no longer play on Alliance since 6 months ago.]