You can't play mods on D2R which to me makes it worse than the original D2. I've enjoyed and played Diablo 2 for 20 years now. A big part of why is due to mods like Median XL (and the fact that it's the best game ever made).
As for PoE, I strongly disagree. If you're only looking at ARPGs that follow the seasonal style and constantly add new content. There aren't many better than PoE.
The respec system is fine. You get some respec points just from playing the story. You can get more by farming the orbs that refund one point per use. I've fully refunded my whole passive tree on a level 85+ character multiple times.
It's not Diablo 3 level respec where your decisions don't matter and you can just change anything you want any time. Which is a good thing.
They actually added a flask enchant that uses them automatically. For example you can have it activate when charges reach full. It only works on utility flasks but it's still a huge QOL improvement.