That's why I said it was an ugly cross.
How far did you get in D3? I beat Inferno during the first two months or w/e, then just stopped playing because it was insanely boring.
The item system is as close as you can get to an MMORPG without having raids. You have "unique" super items which work independently from each other. There was a "best" helm for each class, no matter the build you went. There was a best weapon, armor, etc. This might have changed as the meta game developed, but it would always be a poor contender to the classic item system.
It goes on and on. They completely mixed the genres and lost what made D2 unique.