Ok, but PoE is much closer to the first two diablo games than d3 is.
This is true for D2, but absolutely not for D1. Reaper of Souls is kind of going back to the core essence of ARPGs that Diablo 1 established, while PoE is taking the ARPG genre to an entirely new direction, extending on some of the new features that D2 introduced (such as skill trees, irreversible choices, or more elaborate trading). All of that was non-existent or only rudimentary in D1 because it didn't match Breivik's and Schaefer's concepts for the initial Diablo. PoE is just something different, I'm not saying it's worse or better than Diablo 3, because you can't compare it. Just two different games for two different audiences. But PoE really has not much to do with the core concept that the Diablo franchise is about.