Diablo 3 is fundamentally broken

[RiotInferno]

Why do you think they made inferno and hell bosses so fast and nerfed smoke-screen into oblivion?

Because, at the end of the day, Smoke Screen was way too good. With the right setup, you could be invulnerable through an entire fight. The problem with SS is that it's designed as an aggro-dump / get away mechanic, and implemented as being bullet-proof. Sadly, at this stage in the game, it's easier to reduce the duration then it is to re-implement it.

It's because all that matters to Blizzard is the maths. Character A has enough gear, they may progress. Character B does not have enough gear, they're not allowed to progress.

The problem is, with no character altering choices, what does progression matter?

As a DH in A2/Inferno, I can honestly say that I used no less than 4 different skill combinations in Act 1, before finding one that I think I like. Each one of those has a completely different playstyle. Now, that's one small-style of progression, and character-altering. Also, being able to get through an act in Inferno, when you were previously getting your rear handed to you on a platter, is a feeling I never got in D2. There was always the "I can grind, get tougher, get better." In D3, it's "I can get new gear, and get smarter"

Progression in WoW meant that you unlocked new content. Completing Kara a few times let you move to the new, higher tier content. WoW was allowed to be about gear because it also held non-gear related choices and challenges. It didn't matter how good your gear was, you would still wipe if you played terribly. It still took effort to coordinate a 25 man raid.

Belive me, I've seen plenty of over-geared 60s go down, because all-though they have the gear, they just don't know how to play ( I had the misfortune of being under-geared and dumb ).
Gear only gets you so far in D3/Inferno, and that is one thing I like about it. Yes, gear makes it easier, but you still have to have some form of skill. And the more skill you have, the less gear you need.

Starting a new barbarian would let you choose different strengths and weaknesses, so you experienced an entirely different game, even with the same character class. Now, you're a generic barbarian right the way through the game. All it takes is a change of skills and you're at exactly the same point as you would have been if you'd levelled the entire way with those skills.

This is one thing I actually enjoy. If I want to try a longsword-based DH, I don't have to roll a new one and get him to Hell to see if it's workable or not.
The other thing I enjoy is that pretty much any play-style will get you through nightmare.

There's a lot of problems w/ D3, but it's a month past launch. Wow had its problems, D2 had plenty also. Give Blizzard time, and I hope that they'll eventually be able to bring the game up to par with the others that have had almost a decade to develop.