Impossibilities in game balancing

Dear GGG,
here my feedback concerning the current game balance, what I think you are trying to achieve, why I believe it cannot be done, and suggestions how to improve/approach the issue. I am sure you had such discussions internally already. But maybe some aspects are also good to hear from an external source.

0. My game experience so far
When early access launched, I jumped right into the game without any knowledge and utterly failed. Far overleveled, it took 20 tries to beat the act boss in act 1, and it was impossible to beat the act boss in act 2. As a consequence, I started a new character, switched to a meta build, and bought gear from the marketplace. Finally, the game was playable. In 0.20, I thought I give it another try. Again, just picking nodes that appeared to make sense did not provide enough damage to get through the campaign. I had to switch to a meta build once more.

1. What I think you are trying to achieve
In your interview with Zizaran a few weeks ago, I got the following feeling: You would like the game to be challenging for new players and experienced players alike. Nobody should be able to get through the campaign without dying at least once or twice on an act boss.

2. Why it cannot be done
I believe you have to let go of this idea. An experienced player knows the game mechanics, might plan his/her build with PoB, will understand the meta, follow game updates and release notes, will interact with the market, might have friends to share items with. If you balance the game such that it is somewhat challenging to people who are doing all that, the game will be impossible to beat (I mean the campaign) for newcomers (or veterans who just want to play a season very casually).

3. My suggestion to deal with it
As I already said, I think you have to let go of your approach. At least for the campaign. Otherwise, you will lose a lot of players in the long run. My suggestion to balance the game: Take players who haven't played POE before. Tell them "You play a spear build on huntress with bleed" and monitor their progress. A newbie should be able to get through the campaign on every character with every archetype of damage (damage types with clusters on the tree). Set yourself marks such as "not more the 3 deaths on normal bosses, not more than 10 deaths on act bosses". If they fail, buff the respective skills/nodes or nerf the bosses. Yes, this will mean that experienced players can become even more powerful early on and speed through the game like in POE1. But this cannot be avoided if you want casual players to enjoy the game.

4. Other options
All that being said, I see some options to consider. Although I do not like them personally. First, reduce the number of modifiers on low-level rare items. This way, there aren't totally overpowered weapons/items that one could buy from the market early on to blast through the campaign. Further tighten the level requirements and roll-ranges to enforce even more that nobody can go into a boss fight with god-like gear. Or block access to p2p-trade before finishing the campaign entirely. All this would allow you to provide more power on the tree and make early game success less dependent gear. It would even out the odds a little bit. Assuming of course, that you provide sufficient power to all skills / skill combos with appropriately chosen nodes without spending weeks in PoB.

I hope this helps. And I hope I will be able to play the game casually in couch-coop with a friend at some point and not have to plan this with PoB days in advance.